Sunday, June 25, 2023

Inescapably Unromantic

There are some scientific facts about space travel that are inconvenient. Again, I am talking about astronauts and their bodies. 

First, it should be said since my usual topic on this platform is mostly copyright-related, one cannot copyright titles, one cannot copyright facts. What one can copyright is the "expression" of those facts or information.

Fair Use of someone else's copyrighted and published article might include reportage, critique, educational regurgitation, or parody.

For more information, here's a resource that one might describe as the horse's mouth: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/

The March/April issue of DISCOVER magazine, about "science that matters" contains an article on SPACE AGING by Dave Williams and Elizabeth Howell, with illustrations by Kellie Jaeger (which are unique works that cannot be copied).

Here are ten inescapably unromantic facts about space travellers, reported in no particular order.

a) Astronauts are more likely to grow kidney stones, including very large ones.

Here is an article (from somewhere else) about Urinary conditions suffered by NASA astronauts. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20150020958

b) Astronauts' feet grow very soft in space, owing to disuse.

Well, I suppose soft-soled feet aren't all that unromantic

c) During a six-month stint in zero or microgravity, an astronaut can age by up to twenty years, and upon their return to earth, astronauts can be relatively feeble.

d) Spines elongate in space.

e) Legs become spindly (thin).

f) Bones become brittle, which is attributable to premature osteoporosis. 

(The building blocks of bones migrate to the urinary system, hence the painful and previously mentioned kidney stones.)

g) Faces and necks can become unattractively "puffy".

h) Arteries stiffen.

i) Hearts change shape.

j) The senses, especially vision, deteriorate.

k) Being in space can mess with ones insulin resistance.

These passion-killer facts need not ruin a good story. Here's a video about the international space station, and there is some enlightening commentary attached.

For the rest, that's what imagination is for... or reading scientific magazines and watching lots of David Attenborough/BBC documentaries.

All the best,

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