Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle

Sponsored by the American Physiological Society

Tag Archive for ‘space travel’

Leave a comment

Featuring: Michigan Physiological Society

This week, we are featuring the Michigan Physiological Society. This chapter of the American Physiological Society was established in 2013 and brings together physiologists from around the state of Michigan. Their annual meeting took place June 24-25, 2021, which included a keynote address from Dr. James Pawelczyk, an Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University and former NASA astronaut. His talk was on the limits of human space exploration. Check it […]

Continue Reading →

Leave a comment

Working towards prolonged spaceflight

Spaceflight has always fascinated me. While long distance spaceflight looks so routine in science fiction shows, the reality is much different as we have yet to conquer the complications surrounding long duration deep-space flight. One issue is how to feed astronauts traveling long distances as we do not yet have replicator technologies. If we did, I would have coffee whenever I wanted it. In a new article published in Physiology, […]

Continue Reading →

Leave a comment

Sleep vs torpor

  I read an interesting review article published in Physiology comparing the low metabolic states of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and torpor. According to the article, all mammals experience NREM sleep patterns during which energy expenditure is decreased and body as well as brain temperatures decline. Animals that experience torpor (hummingbirds, arctic ground squirrels, some mice, bears, etc) have reduced metabolic rates and body temperatures that dip below baseline. NREM […]

Continue Reading →