Nov 2, 2021 08:42 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 3, 2021 08:35 PM by C C.)
Long trips to space linked to possible brain damage (microgravity life styles)
https://www.insidescience.org/news/long-...ain-damage
EXCERPTS: Over the past several years, scientists have published research suggesting that people’s brains change after spending longer than a few months in space. These studies started because astronauts experienced issues like vision problems and swollen optic nerves upon returning to Earth after long missions. [...] In a new study of five male cosmonauts (Russian astronauts), researchers looked at levels of different proteins in the blood...
[...] For over twenty years, humans have been visiting the International Space Station [...] A typical trip lasts about six months. ... people on the space station experience a state of near weightlessness. Such “microgravity” is thought to be the main cause of a number of changes the human body can experience while in spaceflight, including the loss of muscles and bone density.
In the last couple of years, brain imaging has also revealed a loss in volume of grey matter, which contains the cell bodies of neurons, and an increased volume of cerebrospinal fluid. Roberts, who uses imaging to study the effect of spaceflight on the brain, has published research showing that in some people who have had long missions on the ISS, their brain has moved up in their head towards the top of their skull, and cerebrospinal fluid occupies more space below and in the center of the brain.
But researchers don’t know what these brain changes might mean for people’s health and cognition. Dr. Peter zu Eulenburg, a co-first author of the new study, published online Oct. 11 in JAMA Neurology, said the previous studies raised questions: “Is there any damage to the brain? Is this really harmful for the cosmonauts?” (MORE - missing details)
Why scientists worldwide are watching COVID infections in the UK (pandemic fashions)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03003-6
INTRO: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has often foreshadowed what came later elsewhere. The highly contagious Alpha variant was first detected there, and the country then reported high caseloads of the more-contagious Delta strain before this variant dispersed around the rest of the world. The United Kingdom also saw a wave of infections that seems to have preceded a similar glut now sweeping Western Europe.
Furthermore, England was among the first regions in Western Europe to lift almost all of its COVID-19 restrictions, following one of the world’s fastest vaccine roll-outs. It ended the legal requirements for social distancing and mask use on 19 July, with Wales and Scotland — which set their own public-health policies — lifting most of their restrictions on 7 and 9 August, respectively. Northern Ireland followed on 31 October.
As one of the first countries to trust high vaccine coverage and public responsibility alone to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the United Kingdom has become a control experiment that scientists across the world are studying. “We are watching the increase in cases closely, trying to dissect what is going on and how that might influence our situation right now,” says Rafael Radi, a biochemist and coordinator of Uruguay’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group.
Nature spoke to scientists around the world about what they hope to learn from the UK experience... (MORE)
https://www.insidescience.org/news/long-...ain-damage
EXCERPTS: Over the past several years, scientists have published research suggesting that people’s brains change after spending longer than a few months in space. These studies started because astronauts experienced issues like vision problems and swollen optic nerves upon returning to Earth after long missions. [...] In a new study of five male cosmonauts (Russian astronauts), researchers looked at levels of different proteins in the blood...
[...] For over twenty years, humans have been visiting the International Space Station [...] A typical trip lasts about six months. ... people on the space station experience a state of near weightlessness. Such “microgravity” is thought to be the main cause of a number of changes the human body can experience while in spaceflight, including the loss of muscles and bone density.
In the last couple of years, brain imaging has also revealed a loss in volume of grey matter, which contains the cell bodies of neurons, and an increased volume of cerebrospinal fluid. Roberts, who uses imaging to study the effect of spaceflight on the brain, has published research showing that in some people who have had long missions on the ISS, their brain has moved up in their head towards the top of their skull, and cerebrospinal fluid occupies more space below and in the center of the brain.
But researchers don’t know what these brain changes might mean for people’s health and cognition. Dr. Peter zu Eulenburg, a co-first author of the new study, published online Oct. 11 in JAMA Neurology, said the previous studies raised questions: “Is there any damage to the brain? Is this really harmful for the cosmonauts?” (MORE - missing details)
Why scientists worldwide are watching COVID infections in the UK (pandemic fashions)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03003-6
INTRO: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has often foreshadowed what came later elsewhere. The highly contagious Alpha variant was first detected there, and the country then reported high caseloads of the more-contagious Delta strain before this variant dispersed around the rest of the world. The United Kingdom also saw a wave of infections that seems to have preceded a similar glut now sweeping Western Europe.
Furthermore, England was among the first regions in Western Europe to lift almost all of its COVID-19 restrictions, following one of the world’s fastest vaccine roll-outs. It ended the legal requirements for social distancing and mask use on 19 July, with Wales and Scotland — which set their own public-health policies — lifting most of their restrictions on 7 and 9 August, respectively. Northern Ireland followed on 31 October.
As one of the first countries to trust high vaccine coverage and public responsibility alone to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the United Kingdom has become a control experiment that scientists across the world are studying. “We are watching the increase in cases closely, trying to dissect what is going on and how that might influence our situation right now,” says Rafael Radi, a biochemist and coordinator of Uruguay’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group.
Nature spoke to scientists around the world about what they hope to learn from the UK experience... (MORE)