"What other possible alternative environments are there in which life may have originated?"
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Question
Have any studies investigated the changes in cellular biology under microgravity?
Yes! Hundreds of studies within NASA or in collaboration with NASA have investigated this exact topic. The effects of microgravity on cellular biology are a hot topic of research because it may provide us an understanding of the fundamental physiological changes of biological systems in space. So far, studies have shown that cells proliferate in microgravity, often outgrowing their Earth-counterparts from the lack of gravity to weigh them down. Likewise, cells tend to take on a spherical shape. Neuronal cells have shown excessive dendrite growth in microgravity. However, some present research indicates that the basic functions of the cell (ex. replication, transcription, etc.) seem to be unaffected by microgravity, suggesting the forces of gravity are negligible compared to the forces governing molecular interactions. For the most recent articles describing relevant NASA studies, check out http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/
April 30, 2002
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