8 days of growth on Earth vs. 8 days on the ISS.
(Photo courtesy of Rob Ferl & Anna-Lisa Paul).

THE BIOLOGICAL CHALLENGES OF SPACE

When living organisms are sent into space, every protein, enzyme and membrane regulating energy exchange is subjected to accelerations different from that in which they evolved. While organisms are also being exposed to an altered radiation environment, perhaps it should not be a surprise that:

“Spaceflight induces molecular, cellular and physiological shifts in astronauts and poses a myriad of biomedical challenges to the human body…”

•Motion sickness.

•Anemia.

•Loss in bone density & muscle mass.

•Spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS).

•Altered liver performance.

•Disruption of immune functions.

(More challenges are identified every year.)

See (Afshinnevoo, et al, 2020) for a more complete discussion of the biological effects of space. None of these problems is well understood - nor are there any present medical remedies. That is why it is so critical to expose the dynamic connection between our large scale acceleration environment and energy exchange processes occurring at nuclear and molecular scales.

Our experiment searching for a possible dynamic explanation for jetlag will help identify this coupling - so too will our experiments with heavy isotopes.
(See those experimental summaries here.)