BESIDE THE DEAD SEA, Israel — At sunrise, the sky and the water seemed metallic, silver-blue, the color of speed. A sign along Highway 90 said, “Lowest Place on Earth.”
Yannis Pitsiladis, scientist and provocateur, had come here for the same reason that pilgrims wheezing with bronchitis and emphysema have headed to this low-altitude divide between Israel and Jordan. He had come for the oxygen.
A quarter-mile below sea level at the Dead Sea, where the barometric pressure is high, there is about 5 percent more oxygen to breathe. The naturally enriched air had been shown to increase exercise capacity in those with chronic lung disease.