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from the is-dark-matter-like-dark-energon dept.
The Conversation has a story about five key findings from 15 years of the International Space Station:
1. The fragility of the human body — there is considerable loss of strength and bone mass without intervention. Mitigating this is key to making it possible to have manned trips to mars.
2. Interplanetary contamination — spores of Bacillus subtilis were exposed to space upon the ISS (but shielded from solar UV radiation). "The space vacuum and temperature extremes alone were not enough to kill them off."
3. Growing crystals for medicine — "Crystals in a microgravity environment may be grown to much larger sizes than on Earth, enabling easier analysis of their micro-structure. Protein crystals grown on the ISS are being used in the development of new drugs for diseases such as muscular dystrophy and cancer."
4. Cosmic rays and dark matter — early results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) support the theory that a halo of dark matter surrounds the Milky Way.
5. Efficient combustion — flames burn more efficiently in space with much less soot produced. Understanding this may lead to more efficient combustion in vehicles.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday January 01 2016, @02:35AM
Not surprised. Back when I had a house I went nuts for gardening. It surprised the hell out of me how sensitive plants were to their environment, being used to pulling weeds for the parental units. FWIW, a weed is a plant that grows where you don't want it to.
If plants, which have no way to compensate for too much/too little {pick something}, why should I be surprised humans are also pretty picky about their environment? Granted, when it's cold I can {turn on the heater | get a blanket | wear a coat | get a cat to sleep in my lap}, and when warm I can {turn on the air | wear shorts | tell the cat to fark off}. But we humans actually have a pretty narrow range of environmental conditions we can live in, let alone be comfortable in.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday January 01 2016, @09:27AM
That's why we need to upload.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2016, @06:17PM
I'm not sure uploaded food is as nutritious as the real one.