Going to Mars: are we humans fit to make the journey and when we arrive will there be life there?

Inlet covers for sample analysis at Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS  

Are we humans prepared to travel to Mars? And if we are, will we find life when we arrive?

What has the Curiousity rover found on Mars? The Mars Science Laboratory team has made some tantalizing hints about a "historic" and "Earth-shaking discovery made in a Martian soil sample.

We won't actually know what they found until it's announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting in early December. Some intriguing possibilities are organic compounds, liquid water, or even microbial life. Hopefully the announcement will live up to the speculation.

(Update 11/27:  NASA's "historic news" turns out to be a misunderstanding. No big announcement forthcoming, alas.)

Even if it turns out that something less spectacular than life, any major finding is sure to inspire more calls for a manned mission to Mars. Humans, the argument goes, are more adaptable than mere machines. But I think the real appeal is to expand the boundaries of human territory and to say that we've been able to do it.

Artist's conception of manned exploration of Pavonis
Mons on Mars. Artist:Pat Rawlings for NASA

But some people have even bolder plans for Mars. Billionaire Elon Musk, founder of the private space flight company Space X, has proposed human colonization of Mars. He envisions a "self-sustaining civilization" of up to 80,000 on the red planet, with colonists paying an "affordable" $500,000 for the trip.

Of course the space ships are still under development. It's not clear when they would be ready for even a small-scale mission with a crew of ten.

And then there's the human factor. At least the first few manned missions to Mars are likely to be relatively rough compared to what later colonists are likely to experience. The journey would take anywhere from 150-300 days, with extended periods of weightlessness and - possibly more importantly - extreme isolation for the crew.

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been carefully monitored to help understand the physiological effects of living in microgravity. It takes a serious toll on the human body: bone and muscle mass are lost, vision can degrade, and some astronauts suffer debilitating space sickness.

But up until now stays aboard the ISS have be relatively short. It was just announced that two astronauts - American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko - are scheduled to begin a year-long stay on the ISS in early 2015. Tests and experiments will be run to determine the physiological effects of such a long stay in space. That will hopefully give scientists a better idea if the human body will be able to tolerate a long journey to Mars under weightless conditions.

Concordia Research Station Source: StephenHudson on
Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

And the effects of living in isolation with a small group are being tested in Antarctica. The scientists at Concordia Research Station in Antarctica are completely isolated for nine months of the year in the most extreme environment on Earth. Even in summer the outdoor temperatures rarely rise about -25°C. In the winter the temperature can fall to -80°C (-112°F) and there is darkness around the clock.

The scientists at Concordia are well aware that their experiences model the psychological pressures the crew of a manned mission to Mars will experience. In an article for the New York Times, physician and researcher Alexander Kumar explained what it's like to return to civilization after a stint there. He notes:

"I have learned a lot about Antarctica, myself and, of course, what might lie ahead on Mars. If we can make the journey, why would we go? And, as we have debated into the wee night hours, should we go?"

I think that's the ultimate question: even if we can make a Mars should we expend the resources and risk the lives of astronauts to do so? And would the discovery of possible life on Mars make a difference?

I admit I really like the idea of a human colony on Mars, but I'm not sure if that's just a romantic notion from having read too many science fiction novels. Even Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, which shows the terrible difficulties - both human and technical - of colonizing Mars doesn't suggest we shouldn't try to go there in the first place. Even if it's hard I think we should go.

And heck, if given the opportunity, I think I would go, even if there aren't little green men. I guess I should be saving up so that I have a spare $500,000 when tickets go on sale.

Dance your PhD: Viruses in Space and Muscle Demons

I'm a big fan of work at the intersection of science and art, so I quite enjoy watching the entries in the annual "Dance Your PhD" contest. Anyone who has completed a PhD in a science-related field can submit a dance video, with the only requirements being that the PhD has to participate in the dance and the video needs to convey something essential about the research.

This year's overall winner is from the chemistry category. Titled "A super-alloy is born: The romantic revolution of Lightness and Strength", University of Australia materials science PhD student Peter Liddicoat's entry includes several interludes, with a big dance number, alongside juggling, and a bit of clowning.

A couple of this year's biology entries seemed to have a speculative fictional flare that I think deserves a closer look.

The first video that caught my eye was the winner of the Biology category: "The Fable of the Agonist, the Antagonist, the Force and the Demon". Physiology PhD student Maria Vinti turned her thesis research into a surreal dance. Patients affected by stroke sometimes have difficulty moving their limbs because they cannot control the agonist and antagonist muscle groups. Injection of botulinum toxin (a powerful neurotoxin also known as "Botox") into overactive muscles can help ease this condition. Here's the science in dance form:


The Fable of the Agonist, the Antagonist, the Force and the Demon from Maria VINTI on Vimeo.

The second University of Texas graduate student Alaina Brinley's video is the only one to include a rocket and dancing astronauts. She turned her dissertation on "Epstein-Barr virus Reactivation During Spaceflight" into a ballet. Her research seems a bit worrying: 90% of the population carries the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which can cause mononucleosis and is associated with some cancers. Spaceflight seems to "wake up" the virus, and cells infected with EBV don't die, even when they are seriously damaged, potentially making cancer serious health risk for astronauts on long-duration space missions.
Watch the dance version of her research:

Brinley:Dance your Dissertation from Alaina Brinley on Vimeo.

It's fun to watch these scientists share their passion for their research through dance. And if some of us viewers learn something new in the process, that's even better!

Watch all of this year's "Dance your PhD" entries.

Science and SF Tidbits: October 13, 2012: Nobel Prizes, Bringing Back Dinosaurs, Martian Biorhythms

Have you watched my live interview with artist Brian Kolm yet? We talk about his design of the Biology in Science Fiction logo, teaching art, and socializing with other artists. Be sure to check it out!

From around the web:

• G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) win 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry | The Curious Wavefunction, Scientific American Blog Network
On Thursday the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to two biochemists: Brian Kobilka (Stanford) and Robert Lefkowitz (Duke). Their work helped explain how a signal on the outside of the cell (such as a neurotransmitter, hormone or even light) is translated into physiological changes inside the cell and altered gene expression. Their research focused on a particular class of receptors in cell membranes that are associated with "G protein" signalling molecules inside the cell. The article linked above is a pretty good overview of how they function.

• An Interview with Sir John Gurdon winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine
I recommend this Cambridge University video interview with John Gurdon. He talks about his original work on frog cloning in the early 60s, the relevance of his work today, and how his parents helped him pursue studies in science after his teacher made him out to be a failure in the subject.

• DNA has a 521-year half-life :: Nature News
After 6.8 million years nearly every bond in a DNA molecule would be broken. That means no Jurassic Part-style cloning of extinct dinosaurs will be possible. Sad news for those of us wishing for a cute cloned Sciurumimus as a pet. It also brings into question reports of extracting DNA from very ancient amber.

• Weird Things » Blog Archive » Who Needs DNA to Bring Back the T-Rex?
Perhaps dinosaurs could be reconstructed even without their DNA. The trick is to use what we know about T. rex anatomy and modern animal biology and fake the rest:

"The blueprint for this creature will be everything we know about the T-Rex. We can design bone structure, ligature and a thousand other tiny details we’ve learned from the fossil records. Although we may never find DNA, we have found cells inside T-Rex fossils, resembling the same kind in ovulating birds. Cells, protein and other kinds of information can help us build a replica that’s perhaps 95% accurate"

• Ridley Scott Explains Prometheus, Is Lovably Insane | Tor.com
Ryan Britt summarizes Ridley Scott's commentary from the DVD release of Prometheus. Sounds either quite brilliant or a bit unhinged, or maybe both.  I may have to watch the movie with commentary myself to see what he says about the dumbest biologist in the galaxy (ooh, the goo in this alien building full of dead bodies is unexpectedly turning into a snake-like creature - let me pet it!)

• Fossil of Ancient Spider Attack - only one of its type discovered
About 100 million years ago a young spider was about to start munching on a wasp caught in his web. But before he could commence munching, tree resin flowed over spider, wasp and web and they were trapped in amber.  Click here to see the fantastic large image.

• How Blue Light And Caffeine Will Help Humans Move To Mars
Mars days are 24.6 hours long, which means we humans with Earthly 24-hour internal clocks can find it hard to adjust. It turns out the key is carefully timed blue light, caffeine, and a comfortable sleeping environment. Tests on members of the Mars Phoenix mission suggests it works, even for folks here on Earth.

• Science In My Fiction » Mind-Control and Instant Skill
Optogenetics combines advanced genetic engineering of neural tissue in the brain and implanted fiber optics to allow external control of behavior and learning in mice. It has even been shown to work to some extent in monkeys. And simply stimulating the brain with electrical current and speed up learning in humans.  Not surprisingly, the military is at he forefront of this sort of research. But it's still in it's early stages - there won't be human "mind control" using this technology any time soon. But if it did work, would you allow your brain cells to be manipulated if it would give you instant skills?

• Report: Ukraine Trains Dolphins With Friggin' Pistols on Their Heads | Danger Room | Wired.com
Pistols attached to dolphins may be far fetched, but it's already the case that navies (including the United States) use dolphins for mine clearing and other underwater operations. The US also apparently uses sea lions "equipped with a spring-loaded clamp that can be attached to a diver’s legs. The sea lion then swims back to its handlers, who can reel the enemy diver in like a snagged fish."  But if you want to make dolphins really lethal, give them mechanical arms and hands. Not only will they be able to kill, before you know it they'll be piloting starships!

Image: Courtesy of Brian Kolm at Atomic Bear Press. Used with permission.

Virulent bacteria and jumping spiders in space: regional winners of the YouTube Space Lab contest

The regional winners of the YouTube Space Lab contest were announced this week.  High school students were challenged to design an experiment that could be performed by NASA aboard the International Space Station. The two global winners will get to watch their proposed experiments live-streamed by YouTube from space. Pretty sweet.

Two of the regional winners proposed biology experiments: one that might have implications for disease fighting (at least for plants) and another that looks at spider hunting behavior in microgravity.

 Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?

This project was submitted by Dorothy Chen & Sara Ma, high school students from Troy, Michigan (USA) in the 14-16 year old division. They propose to send the bacterium Bacillus subtilis into space to see if it becomes more virulent. B. subtilis normally lives in the soil, and some strains have anti-fungal properties that can be used to treat plant diseases in food crops.  Other strains of B. subtilis can act as "probiotics" when ingested by healthy individuals.  In either case, increased virulence would hopefully be a good thing, since that could mean it's a better fungicide or has improved probiotic properties.

Chen and Ma were inspired by experiments performed aboard the space shuttle that showed Salmonella bacteria become more virulent when grown in space (which is definitely a bad thing). It appears that the reason why Salmonella become more infectious is that their environment in microgravity mimic conditions in the intestine altering gene expression. It looks like it's an open question whether B. subtilis - which does not normally infect the gut - will be affected by microgravity the same way.

Watch their proposal video for the details:


Read more technical background information:
Wilson JW et al. "Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Oct 9;104(41):16299-304. Epub 2007 Sep 27.

Can you teach an old spider new tricks?

This project was proposed by Amr Mohamed of Egypt in the 17-18 year old division. He proposes to test whether microgravity affects the behavior of the zebra spider Salticus scenicus. The zebra spider is a type of jumping spider which does not build a web. They instead stalk their prey, pouncing on it to capture tasty insects.  They glue a silk thread to the surface they are jumping from as a "lifeline". That way if they miss, they can climb back up to their perch. It sounds like a creature out of a horror movie!

 So the question is will this "tiger among spiders" be able to adjust it's hunting technique in microgravity and still catch its prey? Amr doesn't think so.

 Watch his proposal video:

 Read more technical background information:

Dill LM. "Predatory behavior of the zebra spider, Salticus scenicus (Araneae: Salticidae)" Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1975, 53:(9) 1284-1289, doi:10.1139/z75-153 (subscription required)

----

Which experiment am I rooting for? My head likes Sara and Dorothy's bacterial experiment for it's potential implications for human (and plant) health.  But my heart likes Amr's jumping spiders, because spiders hunting in space sounds pretty cool to watch.

Fortunately I don't have to choose, since the two entries are in different age categories. Both could win! Good luck!

March 22nd Update:  Sara Ma and Dorothy Chen are the YouTube SpaceLab contest global winners! Bacteria in space FTW!

Top image: YouTube Space Lab logo
Middle image: Falsely colored B. subtilis. Source: NASA
Bottom image: Salticus scenicus eating another spider. Source: Dr.Strangelove at de.wikipedia

Astronomy Science Fiction: Now with Biology!

When the subject of science in science fiction comes up, it seems like many people immediately think of physics and astronomy and, of course, astrophysics. That's not particularly surprising - from its early beginnings SF has featured exploration of other planets, stars and the vast spaces between them.

The short story anthology Diamonds in the Sky is an excellent continuation of that tradition. Edited by science fiction writer and astronomer Mike Brotherton, and funded in part by the National Science Foundation, each story in the anthology features a particular aspect of astronomy and includes an afterword about the science. And, being biased towards my own science background, it's nifty that several of the stories have some biology in them too.

So here are links to those stories, with a wee bit about their relevance to bioscience.

The Moon is a Harsh Pig by Gerald M. Weinberg
Astronomy topics: Phases of the Moon, Misconceptions about Astronomy
Biology topic: Effect of the moon on behavior.
Additional reading: Pull of the Moon: Tales of the Moon's effects on animal behaviour are not just moonshine"

Jaiden's Weaver by Mary Robinette Kowal
Astronomy topic: Planetary Rings
Biology topic: life on a ringed planet

Squish by Daniel M. Hoyt
Astronomy topic: The Solar System
Biology topic: Uploading consciousness into new bodies.
Additional reading: my old post on Charlie Stross's short story "Lobsters" (which also has a bit of astronomy)

Approaching Perimelasma by Geoffrey A. Landis
Astronomy topic: Black Holes
Biology topic: Effect of black holes on the body
Additional information: Neil DeGrasse Tyson on "Death by Black Hole" (YouTube)

To read all the stories, download the Diamonds in the Sky anthology.

Image from Alexander Jamieson: 'A Celestial Atlas Comprising a Systematic Display of the Heavens in a Series of Thirty Maps' (via BibliOdyssey)
Tags:science fiction, biology, astronomy

Living in a Pocket Biosphere

Mstislav, our most dedicated gardener now that Sledge rarely emerges from the Attic, has been tinkering with the carbon-dioxide balance, a dangerous but crucial sport. At six or seven hundred parts per million, the air in here is dreadful but sustains life. Regular jiggering of organic functions is needed to keep the ratio from ballooning to something deadly. To make a long story short, after an alarmingly high reading Mstislav discovered a mound of rotting mangrove fronds under a seemingly healthy hillock of wheatgrass—a camouflaged nightmare of poison-leaching compost. Endgame for us could be that simple, that foolish.
~ "Lostronaut" by Jonathan Lethem

Half of the oxygen in the air we breathe is produced by phytoplankton, tiny plants living in Earth's oceans. The plant life is crucial to maintaining the proper balance of gases in Earth's biosphere. It's only natural, then, that NASA has been trying to develop efficient bioregenerative life support systems that incorporate plants and bacteria for long term space settlements and space stations.

It's not an easy problem, though, either scientifically or politically, as NASA scientists pointed out back in 1997.

"If the current [funding] level is maintained, I would not expect to see a functional ground-based regenerative system for 10-15 years, or a space-rated system for 15-20 years," Finger said. "If a long-duration manned mission becomes a reality, then I would expect the budget to increase significantly for all aspects of life support research."

In addition to the reality of funding, doubts about the reliability of biological systems remain fixed in many people’s minds. Can a closed system recycle waste material quickly enough to renew vital resources? Will the reduced gravity environment of space affect the biological system in ways we cannot assess on Earth? What back-up life support must lunar or planetary colonies have if a plant-based system should fail? Above all, is the concept truly feasible?

"The challenges of designing a working bioregenerative life support system are gargantuan," Morris admitted. He noted that investigators will need to find ways to make such a system extraordinarily compact and energy-efficient. Physicochemical back-up systems add a slew of weight and energy requirements.

Browsing through the NASA web site, it doesn't look like there has been too much progress in the past ten years. The International Space Station (ISS) has a Plant Research Unit is being used to study the effects of microgravity on plant growth and reproduction . It's important research to determine the best plant strains and growth conditions for low gravity environments, but it's just one of the first steps in developing a self-sustaining environment. Science not Fiction has more about NASA's plant research.

But science fiction steps in where science has yet to go. Jonathan Letham's short story "Lostronaut", published in the November 17th issue of The New Yorker, is set on a space station orbiting Earth. The Chinese have planted mines below the station's orbit, preventing the astronauts from leaving the station or supplies from being delivered. They are completely dependent on the the slowly deteriorating systems, including the plant beds that provide them with oxygen and absorb excess carbon dioxide. Letham doesn't provide a lot of scientific details, but does give us a moving story of memory and love and death and life.

Read Jonathan Lethem's "Lostronaut"

For more technical information about plant research on the International Space Station, see "Factors Affecting the Utilization of the International Space Station for Research in the Biological and Physical Sciences" (2003)

Top Image: 39-inch closed glass Ecosphere in the Rose Center for Earth and Space, American Museum of Natural History. The sphere is a closed ecosystem containing small shrimp, bacteria and algae in salt water. Credit: me.

Bottom Image: Corn growing under red LED grow lights, which would be efficient for growing plants in space. Source: NASA.

Tags:science fiction, biosphere, ecology

Tomorrow: Sex in Space

The History Channel has an episode of The Universe that takes a (tasteful?) look at sex in space:

As man moves to colonize the cosmos, the realities of sexual relationships and reproduction need to be addressed. Probe the physiological, psychological and cultural challenges of sex in space. From the sex act through birth, look at how the extreme environments of space exploration might effect copulation, conception and developing human tissues, as well as how issues around sex might impact the emotional lives of astronauts. Get to the bottom of the rumors to find out if space sex has already happened, and look at how the burgeoning space tourism business may soon lead to a boom in space sex.

It's showing December 2 at 9pm, December 3rd at 1AM, and December 20 at 3pm. Looks interesting!

Tags:space, sex

Plenty of Time if A Ship With an Infinite Improbability Drive Happened to Be Passing By

Biology in Science Fiction Roundup: August 2 Edition

Here are some of the biology in science fiction-related posts I've been reading the past couple of weeks:

Written Word

Robert J. Sawyer writes about the genesis of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy.

Pod People reviews the new novel by David Louis Edelman, MultiReal:

[. . .] the book is full of Big Ideas, in the best tradition of science fiction. Hundreds of years after the Autonomous Revolt, an attempt by artificial intelligences to take over the world, humans have rebuilt society and use “bio-logics,” programs which run in the human body, to interact with the world. Natch, an entrepreneur and programmer, has helped develop a radical new technology. This technology, called MultiReal, allows users to manipulate virtual computer networks in such a way as to gain vast powers. They can literally think rings around any human opponent.

io9 lists novels picked by writers Jeff Hecht, Steven Popkes, Robert J Sawyer, Ian Randal Strock and Michael A. Burstein that explore why we seem to be alone in the universe (aka the Fermi paradox).

Movies

Bloody Disgusting tells you how you can download sample tracks from the upcoming sci-fi horror musical movie Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Dr. Who writer Steven Moffat was interviewed by Tor and explained that clones don't always turn out to be cool:

“When you first saw Star Wars, and that really exciting moment where they were--when Obi Wan Kenobi said “Aaaaah, the Clone Wars...” and your little child brain went “Whoa, that must be fantastic, there’s millions of clones, all identical, they were grown in vats... there’s new clones, old clones, clones falling from trees--brilliant!” Then they showed us, and it was a bunch of meetings... You can’t ever live up to something like that, can you? Some things are best being myths, and [the time war] has become a new part of the myth”.

Shock Till You Drop reports that there are plans for a prequel to I Am Legend and io9 has a poll asking readers what they think the plot should be. I'm voting for Will Smith as House.

io9 also takes a look at the new X-Files movie, and the surprising need of Dr. Scully to Google stem cell research - and the "Frankenstein" research she uncovers.

Television

James at Science, society, and stuff... writes about Dr. Who and the disappearnce of honey bees.

Cool Science

Damn Interesting takes a look at what really happens when a human is exposed to space.

Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy explains why there are no green stars. Yes, it has a bit to do with our biology, namely how we see color.

Scientific American interviewed Ian Wilmut - creator of Dolly the cloned sheep - about reproductive cloning (he thinks it should be banned for use in humans) and embryonic stem cells.

Weird Universe links to news that "brain wave science" is being used to convict murder suspects in India.

At Pharyngula PZ Myers has an interesting post about the sometimes confusing field of epigenetics. And ERV explains why you should eat broccoli (epigenetics!).

Razib an Gene Expression writes about the difficulties in making a perfect baby by genetic engineering.

TEDBlog reports on a new body armor under development that's inspired by the layors of scales on the African fish Polypterus senegalus.

Wired Science reports on a suggestion by NASA scientists that we should create an experimental plant habitat on the moon to examine the effects of low gravity, temperature, pressure and high radiation on their gene expression..

Tags:science fiction, biology

Science and Science Fiction Panel at ComicCon

At last week's ComicCon Discover Magazine sponsored a panel discussion on the Science of Science fiction, featuring Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist and TV show (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka) science adviser Kevin Grazier , and Eureka producer and writer Jaime Paglia.

Annalee Newitz reports on io9 about some of their discussion about the science in Battlestar Galactica. One of the bits they tried to get right was the effect of space on the human body.

In season three, in the episode "Day in the Life," where Callie and Tyrol are blasted out of the airlock, through vacuum, and into a waiting Raptor. While a lot of fans complained that BSG's depiction of the event was incorrect, Grazier said in fact many scifi fans' minds had been poisoned by watching Outland and other crappy science in movies. "They wouldn't have exploded or been frozen," he said. "Yes, they would have frozen eventually, but not in the few seconds they were in vacuum." He also noted that they did show Tyrol getting the bends, which was realistic, and Callie had to be in a hyperbaric chamber. "I was proud that we got that right," he added. And fixed a lot of people's misconceptions about vacuum in the process.

Read the whole post for more bits (and there is some discussion of Cylon physiology in the comments). It does seem telling to me that the science consultants seem to be predominantly astronomers and physicists, without a bioscientist in the bunch. Biology just doesn't get the respect that physics does.

Of course you can watch a video of the full panel discussion for more.

Also, check out David Moldawer's report at Tor.com about the Science Fiction authors panel at ComicCon, which included Robert J. Sawyer, Ann Aguirre, Tobias S. Buckell, William C. Dietz, Alan Dean Foster, Charles Stross, and John Zakour.


(Note: this is supposed to be a post on the panel at the official Eureka blog, but I can't get anything other than the title to display)

Sex in Space: How to do it right

As humans spend more time in space, low gravity sex is inevitable.

As Wired's Regina Lynn has pointed out:

We need to acknowledge that humans will bring our sexuality with us into space and that includes all the complexities of relationships as well as the relatively simple matter of bodies. NASA cannot avoid confronting those complexities, especially now that the public knows even astronauts sometimes confuse obsession with love.

"How long can humans go without sex?" is not the right question.

I don't care if you have a same-sex crew of great-grandparents who have never had a flicker of sexual desire in their entire lives. Lock a group of humans into a ship, sail them through space and time, and it won't take long for that deep, ancient need for touch and intimacy to surface.

As a recent article at Space.com points out, that's certainly the case at the McMurdo research station in Antarctica, which received a delivery of 16,500 condoms shortly before their six month winter set in. NASA, on the other hand, seems to be uncomfortable with the whole idea of sex.

"We don't study sexuality in space, and we don't have any studies ongoing with that," said NASA spokesman Bill Jeffs of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If that's your specific topic, there's nothing to discuss," he added, referring to "sex in space."

It seems short-sighted for NASA to assume that astronauts will be too "mission-oriented" for sex to be an issue. On a three-year mission to Mars it doesn't seem likely that astronauts will be working all that time. The Space.com article also appears to assume that any such relationships will be between men and women, and while it's probably safe to assume that most astronauts are heterosexual, it's also likely that some are not. It seems like it is important to work out all the potential issues before a sending a group of astronauts off for several years in a small spacecraft.


And then there's the actual mechanics of sex in space. Early 21st century astronauts don't have the luxury of comfortable quarters with full gravity like the crew of the Enterprise. Instead they'll have to contend with cramped spaces and maneuvering in microgravity. Laura Woodmansee, author of Sex in Space, has suggested possible sexual positions that would work "from the modified missionary position to seated with 'interlocking Y legs'. Sounds like it could be tricky, but I'm sure with a little experimentation and practice all the kinks will be worked out. If you really want to bone up a bit more on the topic, you might want to read Violet Blue's howto:sex in space at her open source sex blog (NSFW).

[note: all puns intended]

Image: 2suit designed by writer and space enthusiast Vanna Bonta, as published on MSNBC.com
Tags:sex in space

WALL-E and Plants in Space

At the Science Fiction & Fantasy Novelists blog, fantasy writer S.C. Butler writes about the scene in the Pixar's WALL-E that just about ruined the movie for him:

It’s a short scene. Wall-e and Eva are zooming around outside the spaceship trying to rescue the plant from earth. (SPOILER ALERT!) And they do rescue it. But then Wall-e takes it out to show Eva while they’re both still outside the ship.

That’s right. In a movie that’s basically about the ecological consequences of our failure to properly manage our planet, the heroes wave a plant around in space. And the plant’s none the worse for it.

So what's the problem with that? The problem is that space is very cold (-270°C), and dry, and a vacuum. Would that kill a plant? That probably depends on how long the exposure is for. I haven't actually seen WALL-E yet, so I don't know how long the plant is exposed to space, but it probably would actually survive if the exposure was short enough. Heck, even humans could likely survive space exposure for 30 seconds or so, and plants have the advantage of being able to grow back from

There's more discussion on whether the little plant would survive at Ask Metafilter.

Tags:science fiction, biology, WALL-E, plants, space

WALL-E: Future Humans Aren't Fat, They've Just Been in Space Too Long

The new Pixar flick WALL-E - opening tomorrow - has been getting great reviews. The Charlie Chaplin-esque robot is an endearing movie star. Not so much the depiction of future human, who are apparently a fat, lazy, junk food-eating indictment of modern American culture. But that wasn't the original idea of writer and director Andrew Stanton. He told ComingSoon.net that the inspiration for the blobby humans was the real physiological changes that occur in microgravity:

The thing that made me pick humans the way they were. It's funny, I actually tried to avoid obesity. I wanted blobs, I wanted babies. Because in doing research with our, one of the consultants to NASA and his expertise was long term residency in space and the reason we don't send a man out to Mars right now is because if we do, they'll come back with almost no bones because disuse atrophy will kick in with very little gravity and osteoporosis will occur and you will lose a large percentage of your bones, and you'll just be this jello blob. And, so I thought oh my gosh, that's a perfect sort of thing dealing with people, later on in life, who have everything solved for them. [. . .] And the whole realization that if you were out in space for that long you would sort of have a lot of bone loss made me feel like wow, you could almost buy that people would be stuck in their beach chairs and we be almost babies. And I thought that was a great metaphor for having to grow up again and stand on your own two feet. And that's what drove it.

Bone loss is indeed a serious side effect of weightlessness:

Weakening of the bones due to the progressive loss of bone mass is a potentially serious side-effect of extended spaceflight. Studies of cosmonauts and astronauts who spent many months on space station Mir revealed that space travelers can lose (on average) 1 to 2 percent of bone mass each month.

"The magnitude of this [effect] has led NASA to consider bone loss an inherent risk of extended space flights," says Dr. Jay Shapiro, team leader for bone studies at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

And that's not the only problem. In weightless conditions astronauts can lose significant muscle mass, and blood volume can drop 20% causing the muscles in the heart to atrophy. Internal fluids shift to the upper body and head, causing swelling (see image).

Without a regular exercise program that combats those physiological changes, living in space could indeed be permanently crippling. I guess that wouldn't make for a funny movie.

Image: WALL-E screenshot via Doobybrain.com
Tags:space physiology, WALL-E

Embryogenesis in Zero G

Ninaki Priddy's short video "The Surrender" looks at what the effect of a zero gravity environment might be on human embryogenesis:

In mans quest to colonize outer space, developmental biology in zero gravity has posed an unreasonable risk to capable mothers. The Defense requires comprehensive assessment and federal restrictions to regulate the genetic adaptation of simple organisms in a gravity stressed environment.

Ninaki writes:

The mini treatment was the product of a seminar at SCI-ARC that Rene Daalder (scifi director) & Claire Philips (scifi writer) collaborated to host the Space Collective. Students were asked to generate a synopsis of an environment for "forward thinking terrestrials". In class writing exercises and discussions on the possibilities of an architecture on another planet, became refined story lines for each student and their individual background and philosophies. Before graduating from SCI-ARC, I had studied biology for 3 years: my focus on pediatrics. Which led me onto this research of adapting an alluring proposition of procreation in a zero-gravity environment. Using new media software, MAYA, Final Cut Pro, the visual treatment was an opportunity to model and render the script to life.

You can see many more future-looking student videos at SpaceCollective.org

Tags:Ninaki Priddy, embryology, space physiology, SpaceCollective

Bioscience News Roundup: 02-25-08

Here are some interesting bioscience web tidbits from the past couple of weeks.

Edge has an interview with biological engineer Drew Endy about the future of engineering organisms.

Programming DNA is more cool, it's more appealing, it's more powerful than silicon. You have an actual living, reproducing machine; it's nanotechnology that works. It's not some Drexlarian (Eric Drexler) fantasy. And we get to program it. And it's actually a pretty cheap technology. You don't need a FAB Lab like you need for silicon wafers. You grow some stuff up in sugar water with a little bit of nutrients. My read on the world is that there is tremendous pressure that's just started to be revealed around what heretofore has been extraordinarily limited access to biotechnology.

Bioethics Bytes looks at the ethical issues that arise with human longevity, based on the BBC Channel 4 documentary, Do You Want to Live Forever?, featuring biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey.

io9 reports from the AAAS conference about research from Angela Belcher's lab at MIT that uses specially engineered viruses as battery components. Belcher says we shouldn't worry about the viruses running rampant:

"Let's see what we can get biology to do for us," she said. "It's just a matter of giving biology new opportunities, new materials to work with." One audience member asked if Belcher is concerned about the viruses mutating and perhaps replicating on their own. Not possible, responded Belcher. The only mutations she's seen so far have been viruses reverting back to their old state (ie, making regular virus shells instead of battery components), and viruses making depolarized battery components.

Technology Review presents its annual list of the 10 most exciting emerging technologies. On the bioscience front are enzymes designed to make biofuels from cellulose and "connectomics", which "attempts to physically map the ­tangle of neural circuits that collect, ­process, and archive information in the nervous system."

Technology Review also writes about the work of Miguel Nicolelis's lab at Duke on neural implant technology. Their most recent breakthrough:

In January a rhesus monkey named Idoya did what no other creature has done before: she made a robot walk just by thinking about it. All Idoya had to do was imagine taking a step, and the robot would actually take it.

Australian scientists surveying the deep ocean around Antarctica have found an array of giant sea creatures, including "sea spiders the size of dinner plates." You can watch video from the expeition at the Census of Antarctic Marine Life web site.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have created a chip that where chemical interactions between neurons mimic those in the brain.

The fossil of a very large frog - estimated to be 16 inches long and 10 pounds - was discovere in Madagascar. The frog, christened Beelzebufo (pictured above), may have eaten baby dinosaurs.

Finally, Korean scientists have developed a space safe kimchi, so the country's first astronaut doesn't have to go without spicy fermented cabbage. Some bacteria have been shown to be more virulent in a zero-g environment, so a bacteria-free version needed to be developed. It doesn't address the other potential problem with kimchi in the close confines of a space vessel: stinky garlic kimchi breath.

Bioscience News Roundup: 02-11-08

Some interesting bioscience bits from the past week:

io9 reports on the open source biohacking community. You can join the community yourself at Sourceforge.

Join the fight against cancer, against all sorts of disease! Or would you rather see some glowing bacterium, get your own ecoli farm set up to amaze your friends? This open, free synthetic biology kit contains all sorts of information from across the web on how to do it: how to extract and amplify DNA, cloning techniques, making DNA by what's known as oligonucleotides, and all sorts of other tutorials and documents on techniques in genetic engineering, tissue engineering, synbio (synthetic biology), stem cell research, SCNT, evolutionary engineering, bioinformatics, etc. And since the project is open, it's free for you to revise or share your experiences, or even share your genes (got anything cool?). The more eyes, the better-- you can't ignore these awesome possibilities (or even the not-so-cool ones*).

The big bioscience story was the creation of a human three parent embryo: the nucleus from a traditionally-created (if that's the right term) in vitro fertilized embryo was transferred into a donor egg. The donor egg had most of its DNA removed, but still contained mitochondria. More at Genetics and Health

Mind Hacks writes about the 1959 special issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry on 'space psychiatry'.

PLoS Biology published an article about chameleons using color change as social signals. Wired has the basics, including a funky chameleon video.

Bruce Sterling writes about work by the Army to hack mitochondria:

Oxford University biochemists look for ways to get mitochondria to feed on fats, instead of sugars -- without all the nasty side-effects of a constant cheeseburger binge. (((Did I mention it also makes you slender, sexy, and ravenously erotic at the age of 60? See if you can't slither through that rusting thicket of bayonets surrounding at the mitochondria plant, ladies))) If the scientists are successful, small rations of the ketone cuisine could boost a soldier's stamina, and maybe even keep him nourished for days at a time....

The Neurophilosophy blog has video from the World Economic Summit in Davos:

In this film, Scoble talks to the Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, who discussed his recent experiments in which a monkey with a brain-computer interface implanted into its motor cortex controlled the movements of a robot that was located more than 7,000 miles away.

New Scientist writes about a "DNA-based fabricator" created by CalTech bioengineers. They used it to create "two-legged DNA molecules that walk along a ladder-like track."

They also report on a nifty ink jet printer designed by scientists at Wake Forest to "print" using cells rather than ink.

Technology Review reports on recent experiments towards gene therapy for chronic pain

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine injected a virus carrying the gene for an endogenous opioid--a chemical naturally produced by the body that has the same effect as opiate painkillers such as morphine--directly into the spinal fluid of rats. The injections were targeted to regions of the spinal cord called the dorsal root ganglia, which act as a "pain gate" by intercepting pain signals from the body on their way to the brain. "You can stop pain transmission at the spinal level so that pain impulses never reach the brain," says project leader Andreas Beutler, an assistant professor of hematology and medical oncology at Mount Sinai.

It looks like there is one common ancestor for the blue-eyed.

Forbes looks at how to cheat death

Nature reports that insect-eating plants produce useful enzymes (subscription required)

Carnivorous plants are not the first organisms to come to mind when searching for biomedical compounds. Yet, like something from science fiction, researchers are discovering enzymes in the digestive fluids of carnivorous pitcher plants that could prove useful in controlling infections.

Tags:science fiction, biology

Bioscience News Roundup: 01-28-08

Here are some of the interesting biology stories from the past week:

First off, there are all kinds of interesting bioscience posts rounded up for the Tangled Bank blog carnival at The Innoculated Mind. Also, John Wilkins has rounded up basic science concept posts at ScienceBlogs.

The big news of the past week was a report from the Venter Institute that they had succeeded in assembling an entire microbial genome from synthesized DNA. As Technology Review reports:

Biologists creating genetically engineered organisms now routinely order pieces of DNA that are 10,000 to 20,000 base pairs long--big enough to incorporate the genes for a single metabolic pathway. That allows researchers to engineer microbes that can perform specific tasks, but the ability to synthesize entire genomes could grant a whole new level of control over biological design. [. . . ] In the new study, scientists ordered 101 DNA fragments, encompassing the entire Mycoplasma genome, from commercial DNA synthesis companies. These fragments were designed so that each overlapped its neighboring sequence by a small amount; these overlapping stretches stick together, thanks to the chemical properties of DNA. Researchers then bound the fragments piece by piece, eventually generating the full 582,970 base pair Mycoplasma sequence.

The next step is to show that the synthesized genome is functional. Venter Institutes's ultimate goal is to create a completely synthetic organism.
Wired has several related articles:

• From Artificial Genome to Artificial Life: Hold Your (Synthetic) Horses
• Synthetic Biology: It's Not What You Learned, But What You Made
• Wired Science Reveals Secret Codes in Craig Venter's Artificial Genome

The Panda's Thumb reports on a couple of cool articles that show how unicellular organisms like the giant slime mould can learn and remember.

Greg Laden has video of a talk by UC Biologist Robert Full on analyzing the motions of cockroaches, crabs and geckos and applying the information to creating "the perfect robotic distributed foot."

New Scientist shares a report on space-bred cockroaches from the Russian News agency Novosti:

. . . baby cockroaches conceived aboard a satellite in September have apparently grown up to be faster and tougher than their terrestrial brethren.The first creatures ever conceived in space also grew more quickly than ordinary Earth-bred cockroaches.

A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Washington have analyzed the genome of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana and found a set of 75 genes involved in processing silica to form hard cell walls:

The new data will enable Sussman to start manipulating the genes responsible for silica production and potentially harness them to produce lines on computer chips. This could vastly increase chip speed, Sussman says, because diatoms are capable of producing lines much smaller than current technology allows.

Technology Review reports on studies of rural Ecuaorians who have a rare mutation making them resistant to grown hormone. The condition not only causes dwarfism and obesity, but also seems to protect from artherosclerosis and possibly cancer and type 2 diabetes. The hope is that it also increases longevity, as a similar mutation does in mice.

"In the mouse, the effect is major and striking," says Andrzej Bartke, a biologist at Southern Illinois University in Springfield, who is not involved in the project. "They seem protected from cancer and appear to have delayed aging by various measures. But there is almost no evidence that growth-hormone deficiency would extend life in humans."

Mind Hacks writes about a recent article by neuoscientist R. Douglas Fields that compares brain size and function across species.

It turns out that while whales have bigger brains, humans have more neurons. Nevertheless, whales have more glial cells.

Glial cells were traditionally thought to do nothing more than support and insulate the neurons, but it's becoming increasingly clear that they're actually part of the brain's processing system (although they're exact role is far from clear).

So maybe there's a lot more to the whale brain that it first appears.

Finally, ScientificMatch is a Boston-based dating service with a twist.

. . . personal chemistry matching is done via DNA analysis. The immune system is what has been found to affect sexual compatibility, with people tending to prefer those whose immune systems are different from their own. The benefits of well-matched immune systems, according to research cited by ScientificMatch, include a more satisfying sex life, increased faithfulness, higher fertility and healthier children. Members who sign up for the company's USD 1,995.95 service send a cheek swab to ScientificMatch, which analyses the portion of their DNA that relates to the immune system. Matches are then suggested with other members who have compatible chemistry. The matching process won't work for women on the pill or for people who weren't raised by their natural parents, ScientificMatch cautions. It will, however, work for those seeking same-sex relationships.

I'd be interested in knowing whether ScientificMatch has a higher success rate than eharmony or chemistry.com .

Tags: biology

Biology in Science Fiction Roundup: January 12 Edition

Biology in Science Fiction bits from around the web:

• ListVerse lists the Top 10 Errors in Science Fiction Movies, from oversimplistic planets, to humanoid aliens and alien-human breeding (via SF Signal).
• In celebration of their own birth, SyFyPortal lists the Ten Strangest Pregnancies on Science-Fiction Television.
• Bioethics Bytes writes about the bioethics themes in Michael Crichton's 2002 novel Prey.
• At Slice of SciFi Emilio D'alise editorializes about the objectionable "violation of science" in Sci-fi movies (via SF Signal):

  Watching The Thing revert to human, and back again, also sets me to ponder on the transmutation of flesh to rock, back to flesh, and back to rock. Again, extra mass, lots of energy, and cells changing their chemical composition in milliseconds. Watching The Flame burn “hotter than the sun” makes me wonder if we could tap him to create wormholes . . . before I remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. Where’s all that fuel coming from?

  My wonder and awe is considerably reduced when, after showing hook-like hairs sprouting from his skin, thus allowing Spiderman to cling to any surface, he covers them by putting on gloves; gloves that also cover the area of his wrists oozing “spider-web”. I could go on, but some may call me “picky”. Others may call me “kill-joy”. Those with a good vocabulary might accuse me of being pedantic. Others will then have to go look that up.

• Indian news site Tehelka has an article about Indian science fiction (via BoingBoing and Beam Me Up)
  

  DNA-ALTERING experiments, moody robots, strange mutations from failed cloning projects, wonder machines and nano-gadgetry, and, of course, aliens playing peek-a-boo with humans — science fiction writing in Indian languages has this all and more.

• Science and Supermodels looks at the Science of Bionic Woman.
  
• At Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelists Mike Brotherton lists his top ten science-based sci-fi movies. Most have a physical science bent, but Predator made the list for "an alien that sees in a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and having that actually play a role in the plot."
• io9 looks at mutant and monsterous Queens of England in science fiction and great zombies of science fiction (no the lists don't overlap). They also take a poke at the bad science in the movie Sunshine when one of the characters is expose to vacuum.
• Geekstir presents the Zombie Food Pyramid. It looks like Atkins taken to the extreme. (via Slashfood)
• Dvice lists 10 technologies that can give you superpowers, including gecko-inspired Spidey-suits and injected spider genes to produce silk in mammals.
• In an interview with SF Crowsnest, Lois McMaster Bujold explains how a "six-week biology study tour of East Africa" influenced her first novel, Shards of Honor.
• Last, but not least:Elizabeth Bear has a message for science fiction writers who are fans of evolutionary psychology:
  

  . . . hunter-gatherer societies are in general far more egalitarian and less hierarchal than agrarian ones. This whole romanticized view of tribal life to justify completely bogus evolutionary psychology designed to reinforce whatever the romanticizer's preconceptions of the idealized primeval human state are thing gets up my nose so fucking bad I can't stand it.

  There's an interesting discussion in the comments about eating insects, foraging and "primitive" diet.
  

Tags:science fiction, biology

A Joyous Stardance for the New Year!

Dear readers, I hope you had (or are having) a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Mirthful Yule, Joyous Kwanzaa, or other winter festival of choice!

I plan to get back to regular blogging after the turn of the new year, but I was inspired to post about the upcoming real-life Stardance. As the Stardance Movie website explains:

The Stardance Experience proposes that there is more to space travel than orbital mechanics, payloads and turbopumps, more stories to be told in the setting of space than “ray-guns and rocket ships.”

Loosely based on the Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s series of novels, Stardance (Dial Press 1979), Starseed (Ace Books 1991) and Starmind (Ace Books 1995). The story follows astronaut Treya Anderson, a full time maintenance worker on a space station orbiting earth in the not too distant future. Both a dancer and an engineer, she chose science and space over a career in dance, but now, circumstances and opportunity will combine to allow her to merge her two passions into transcendent art with cosmic consequences.

On Sunday, Vancouver dancer Kathleen McDonagh will lift off from Las Vegas in a modified 727, the so-called "vomit comet", to be filmed performing zero-gravity dance. For more information, check out the Stardance Experience blog, written by Jeanne and Spider and the movie's director, James Sposto. You can also listen to Spider Robinson read from the Stardance trilogy in his podcast.


Now while this is pretty cool, I'm sure you are wondering what this has to do with biology. While the original Stardance didn't have much of a biological bent, other than the adjustment of the human body to zero-G, the later books reveal that it is the destiny of the human race to evolve from Homo sapiens to Homo caelestis. From the end of Starmind (highlight to read - spoilers!):

Stardancer Shara Drummond announces to the people of Earth:
"I'm afraid your life is about to change forever. Your old life is over; a new one is about to begin. I know that will not be welcome news for many of you. No baby wants to be born; they all come out crying. But they stop. I'm afraid you have no more choice in the matter than a baby does: the contractions are beginning, and no power in the Solar System could stop them now.
[. . .]
"You know that the Fireflies seeded this planet with life. You know that much of what you are is written in your DNA. Some of you may know that large segments of th information encoded there appear to be gibberish, and do not express somatically -- the so-called junk DNA. These genetic 'instructions' are never carried out, because they lack the end-begin codes that would activate them.
"In just a few minutes, a kind of telepathic trigger signal will go out from Titan. There is no way to avoid or shield against it: it will be as unstoppable as a neutrino, and faster. Designed by the same beings who designed DNA in the first place, it will insert end-begin codes in certain introns -- and switch them on. Everywhere in the Solar System, the nature of human tissue will change, permanently.
"It will become transparent to gravitons. In plain language, it will become immune to gravity."

No, it's not realistic bioscience, but I find the idea of dancing among the stars a joyful notion.

Have a happy new year!

Update 1/1/08: Here's a bit of video from the flight (via Stardance Movie Blog):


Tags:science fiction, biology, Stardance, Spider Robinson, Jeanne Robinson, zero gravity

Taste in Space

Late last night, my husband and I turned on the TV to Emeril Live (I know that isn't science fiction, but bear with me). In this particular episode, Emeril developed recipes for astronauts on the International Space Station. It was pretty interesting to learn about how the food is prepared, dehydrated and vacuum sealed, and the kinds of limitations that puts on the recipes you choose.

One thing that was striking was that all of the astronauts that Emeril chatted with (both on the Space Station and here on terra firma) mentioned that they wanted spicy and well-seasoned dishes, because food simply doesn't have as much flavor in space. I hypothesized that for some reason your sense of smell is diminished in space, making food less tasty. Husband hypothesized that the redistribution of bodily fluids in the low gravity made the tongue swell and function differently. (They aren't great hypotheses, but heck, it was 3AM.)

First off, it turns out that we were both right and both wrong. Microgravity does indeed change the distribution of fluids and astronauts do have stuffed up nasal passages. When this hypothesis was tested in simulated microgravity here on earth, however, no change in taste was observed (PubMed abstract). Experiments on astronauts in space have been fairly consistent with those results. Other possible causes that have been proposed are that it's a side effect of space sickness, lower atmospheric pressure (which may affect the smell of foods), stress, or psychological effects of social and environmental isolation (Olabi 2002 (pdf)). Studies so far have been inconclusive, and I would bet that it turns out that the cause is a combination of different factors.

Why does this matter? I would say that it's a quality of life issue, especially for very long trips, such as the proposed manned mission to Mars. As Olabi and colleagues point out:

Eating is one of the basic needs of humans and any disturbance in the enjoyment of eating foods due to taste alterations can have an effect on the health and morale of astronauts in long term space missions, in a similar manner to what occurred with with individuals on Antarctic missions (Stuster, 1996).

Interestingly, the science fiction stories I've read that deal with human adaptation to low gravity largely focus on changes to bone and muscle mass. There are descriptions of space-"evolved" humans with longer, lighter limbs and feet adapted for gripping. However, I haven't read any that discussed changes in the chemical senses*. Would space-goers be more likely to eat alien foods simply for the novelty? Would they be less able to detect contaminated or spoiled food? Would there be changes in sexual attraction?

The entire culture of a human colony living in a low gravity environment might turn out to be very different from our own here on earth. (And I'm hoping that someday the Food Network will routinely carry shows on "space cuisine" with some of the answers. )

* There is a colorful description of a zero gravity formal banquet, with "finger foods" and "toe foods" in John C. Wright's story, Guest Law.

Review Article: Olabi et al. "The Effect of Microgravity and Space Flight on the Chemical Senses" J. Food Sci 67:468-478 (2002)"> (pdf)

Tags:space, food, , physiology