space

Alysson R. Muotri discusses his launch of brain organoids into outer space and how microgravity enriches our understanding of brain development and disease.

Take a peek inside one Israeli company’s push to send pharmaceutical research into space.

There are benefits of studying certain biological processes under microgravity, but whether those advantages outweigh the costs of getting experiments off Earth remains to be seen.

Weill Cornell Medicine geneticist Christopher Mason speaks with The Scientist about a bolus of new work on the physiological, cellular, and molecular effects of leaving Earth.

The three smaller water bodies join a previously discovered lake buried beneath ice at the red planet’s south pole.

Rats and equations help researchers develop a theory of how our brains keep track of when events took place.

NASA’s vegetable production system, known as Veggie, may help pave the way for more sophisticated systems that could supplement astronauts’ diets during long trips to space.

A clinical trial is underway to see if suspended animation, in which the body is cooled to 10–15 °Celsius, could slow patients’ decline and give doctors time to operate.

Cardiomyocytes made from iPSCs aboard the International Space Station had upregulated mitochondrial functioning.

The astronomical idea doesn’t align well with the fossil record, anthropologists argue, but the origins of bipedalism are still difficult to determine.

An Israeli lunar lander carrying the tiny animals crashed into the moon in April, and now scientists are trying to determine if the creatures are still alive.

Lucie Low, a project leader for Tissue Chips in Space, describes the experiments that are slated to blast off later this week.

Scott Kelly’s physiology, gene activity, and mental performance changed after time aboard the International Space Station, but mostly returned to normal once back on Earth.

An analysis of the scars left by long-gone flows reveals that Mars’s rivers may have run even when scientists thought the planet was drying out.

Rockets can transport humankind to Mars, but only the scientific and medical community can ensure our survival.

Images from the country’s Chang’e-4 lunar lander show the first sprouting plants.

Identifying microbes from Earth that can survive on spacecraft may help scientists eliminate them from future space missions and from searches for extraterrestrial life.