Bubble formation within decompressed hen's eggs.

Decompression sickness follows a reduction in ambient pressure and is a result of bubble formation in blood or tissues. The origin of such bubbles is the subject of considerable controversy, and a number of mechanisms have been proposed to account for them. In testing these mechanisms, freshly-laid hen's eggs provide a particularly intriguing model--namely, an intact biological system in which bubbles form readily and many of the proposed processes are excluded.