The Effects Of Space Travel On The Brain
Today is the UK Space Agency Mars Day, it celebrates the 6th anniversary of the launch of the first ExoMars mission, and a year since NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover started exploring Mars. In just three years\u2019 time NASA aims to return humans to the Moon as part of the Artemis Mission, and in just a decade it\u2019s onward to the surface of Mars \u2013 the tech and engineering may be ready, but are we?\n\nBeing in space has well-documented negative effects on the body. But the effect of being in space on the brain has been studied less. In this podcast Dr Yvonne Couch, ARUK Research Fellow at University of Oxford hosts a discussion with three world leading experts to explore the effects of space travel on the brain.\n\nWe\u2019re joined by Chris Mason, Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, USA. Chris is one of the people behind the landmark Twins Study that followed identical twins Scott and Mark Kelly, while one spent a year on earth and the other spent a year in space \u2013 he works with NASA, runs multiple labs, and utilises computational and experimental methodologies to identify and characterise the essential genetic elements that guide the function of the human genome, with a particular emphasis on the elements that orchestrate the development of the human brain. Chris has also written a fantastic book \u2018The Next 500 Years\u2019 about our future in space. \n\nNext we have Dr Iya Whiteley, Space Psychologist and Director of the Centre for Space Medicine at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, at University College London. Dr Whiteley works with the European Space Agency is a trained Astronaut Instructor and has published several papers about fatigue in astronauts. She helps develop tools to support crew autonomous operations in complex human spacecraft and works at the cutting edge of psychological support of astronauts going to the moon and mars. Iya is also the author of a new book titled \u201cToolkit for a Space Psychologist - to support astronauts in exploration missions to the Moon and Mars\u201d\n\nLast by far from least we have the unstoppable Henrik Zetterberg, Professor of Neurochemistry and neurodegenerative disease expert at University College London and the University of Gothenburg. Henrik is a leading expert in fluid based biomarkers in dementia, and in 2020 he discovered a new method to detect the disease about two decades before significant symptoms are present. In this show he does an amazing job of keeping the show on track as we explore radiation, gravity, psychology, food, sleep and everything that makes astronauts \u2018Super Human\u2019, or are they?\n\nThe Next 500 Years \u2013 https://amzn.to/3t2iCV1\n\nToolkit for a Space Psychologist \u2013 https://amzn.to/3CGmTAE\n\nTwins Study - https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study\n\nMore on Mars Day - https://marsday.org.uk/\n\n--\nYou can find out more about our guests, and access a full transcript of this podcast on our website at:\n\nhttps://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/podcast\n\nRegister on our website to receive your weekly bulletin, and to access more great content \u2013 blogs, science, career support + much more\n\nhttps://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk\n\nThis podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Research UK and Alzheimer's Society, who we thank for their ongoing support.