How can a human body change after a year in space? The "Twins Study" is trying to answer that question. Scott Kelly has an identical twin, Mark Kelly, and the study involves comparing changes to their body over one full year. The catch is that Scott spent the year on the International Space Station while Mark spent the year here on earth. Scientists wanted to examine hundreds of factors including immune response, bone formation, gut microbiomes and DNA. Although no big surprises were found, the most interesting result was a change in Scott's telomeres. The telomere is a "repetitive sequence at the end of a chromosone to protect it from deteriorating or fusing with other chromosones." Usually, as we age telomeres get shorter, but Scott's telomeres actually got longer while he was in space.
There were other differences between the two twins, but the good news is that it is now clear that one year in space is not any more detrimental to the human body than six months in space. As scientists try to plan for eventual travel to Mars studies like these will become even more important.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/health/astronaut-twins-study-preliminary-results-trnd/index.html
It's so cool how fast the human race is advancing so fast in scientific, and technological studies. I'm excited for the day we reach Mars!
ReplyDeleteI hope we as humans never lose interest in discovering more technology and space as we continue to grow as a race.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting to think about the effects being in space has on people, genetically.
ReplyDelete