We have all experienced the force of gravity. It
is what happens to you when you jump up into
the air. Disappointingly for anyone with
ambitions to be Supergirl or Superman, we tend
to fall right back down to the ground.
But what if we could switch gravity off?
Physics is adamant that this could never actually
happen. But that has not stopped people
exploring the idea. Here, based on the collective
wisdom of several experts, is our best guess at
what would happen to you if gravity suddenly
vanished.
Jay Buckey, a physician and one-time NASA
astronaut, explored how the absence of gravity
affects the human body in a short Ted-Ed
lecture
Buckey says that our bodies are adapted to an
Earth-like gravitational environment. If we spend
time living where gravity is different, such as on
board a space station, our bodies change.
It is now an established fact that astronauts
lose bone mass and muscle strength during
stints in space, and their sense of balance
changes.
An absence of gravity brings other problems, as
Kevin Fong explains for Wired. For reasons not
entirely clear, our red blood cell count falls,
bringing on a form of "space anaemia". Wounds
take longer to heal and the immune system
loses its strength. Even sleep is disturbed if
gravity is weak or absent.
That is just what happens after a short visit to
space. "What if you were to grow up without
gravity?" Buckey asks. "What about the systems
that depend on gravity like your muscles, or
your balance system, or your heart and blood vessels?"
http://herald365.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/21005559/astronaunt.jpg
There is good reason to believe the human
body would develop differently.
Gravity is one of four fundamental forces that
govern our Universe.
The other three are just as crucial. Without
electromagnetism and the strong and weak
nuclear forces, atoms themselves would fall
apart.
But gravity is the only one that is truly a
household name, which is perhaps why we are
so fascinated by ideas like antigravity – and
why the discovery of gravitational waves is so
exciting, even if it never touches any of our
lives directly.
is what happens to you when you jump up into
the air. Disappointingly for anyone with
ambitions to be Supergirl or Superman, we tend
to fall right back down to the ground.
But what if we could switch gravity off?
Physics is adamant that this could never actually
happen. But that has not stopped people
exploring the idea. Here, based on the collective
wisdom of several experts, is our best guess at
what would happen to you if gravity suddenly
vanished.
Jay Buckey, a physician and one-time NASA
astronaut, explored how the absence of gravity
affects the human body in a short Ted-Ed
lecture
Buckey says that our bodies are adapted to an
Earth-like gravitational environment. If we spend
time living where gravity is different, such as on
board a space station, our bodies change.
It is now an established fact that astronauts
lose bone mass and muscle strength during
stints in space, and their sense of balance
changes.
An absence of gravity brings other problems, as
Kevin Fong explains for Wired. For reasons not
entirely clear, our red blood cell count falls,
bringing on a form of "space anaemia". Wounds
take longer to heal and the immune system
loses its strength. Even sleep is disturbed if
gravity is weak or absent.
That is just what happens after a short visit to
space. "What if you were to grow up without
gravity?" Buckey asks. "What about the systems
that depend on gravity like your muscles, or
your balance system, or your heart and blood vessels?"
http://herald365.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/21005559/astronaunt.jpg
There is good reason to believe the human
body would develop differently.
Gravity is one of four fundamental forces that
govern our Universe.
The other three are just as crucial. Without
electromagnetism and the strong and weak
nuclear forces, atoms themselves would fall
apart.
But gravity is the only one that is truly a
household name, which is perhaps why we are
so fascinated by ideas like antigravity – and
why the discovery of gravitational waves is so
exciting, even if it never touches any of our
lives directly.
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