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May 24, 1996
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Long, Hoffler honored at Aerospace Medical Association meeting
Dr. Irene Long and Dr. Wyck Hoffler, director and deputy director, KSC Biomedical Operations Office, were honored at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association held in Atlanta recently.

Long was elected as the second vice president of the affiliated Society of NASA Flight Surgeons (SNFS) and will serve as the organization's president in 1998.

Hoffler received the SNFS President's award from this year's president, KSC's Dr. David Tipton, and was cited for his contribution to the ideals and goals of the society.

Hoffler also serves as the organization's historian.

Employees of the month
PHOTO CAPTION: HONORED IN MAY, from the left are Lorene Williams, Shuttle Processing Directorate; Susan Sharp, Space Shuttle Program Office; Thomas Rucci, Payload Processing Directorate; Sharon White, Procurement Office; Armando Oliu, Logistics Operations Directorate; Phyllis Onken, Office of the Chief Finanical Officer; Gerald Schumann, Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate; and Jeanine Hoyle, Administration Office. Not pictured is Joanne Maceo, Engineering Development Directorate.

Tiny sea animals help NASA, CSA answer big questions
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are taking life science research to new heights. CSA's Aquatic Research Facility (ARF) or Space Aquarium launched with the Space Shuttle Endeavour on May 19.

One thousand mussel larvae, 32,000 sea urchin eggs and 6,000 starfish embryos were stowed aboard Canada's first life science payload in space. This zoo of marine life is the focus of three studies that will address world-wide concerns ranging from birth defects to dwindling fish stocks in our oceans.

Housed in what looks like a suitcase carrying two carousels from a compact disc player, the aquatic specimens are being observed by two tiny video cameras in two separate environments. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) life science personnel will take part in the monitoring and maintenance of the experiments in-flight.

One carousel spins, imitating the Earth's gravity and the other provides a gravity-free environment so scientists can compare the two conditions side by side. A third set of specimens is being watched at KSC to insure that gravity is the only varying factor in the experiment.

Dr. Heide Schatten, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the principal investigator on the U.S. portion of the experiment. It began three hours after launch when astronauts injected a sperm concentrate into a container full of sea urchin eggs using a unique KSC-developed syringe.

The new syringe, made from off-the-shelf materials, allows very small, exact injections of fluid. It protects the user from needle injury and has a triple containment feature that prevents fluid from leaking in the near-zero gravity environment of space.

Dr. Schatten will observe the effects of spaceflight on the early stages of embryo development. The study will provide insight into the causes and cures of both osteoporosis and muscular dystrophy.

One of the two CSA experiments focuses on the calcium formation of a mussel's shell and the development of its feeding mechanism. Dr. Ron O'Dor, a professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, hopes his investigation will shed some light on the causes of calcium depletion experienced by humans in space.

Today's astronauts take daily, three-hour exercise breaks to maintain healthy bones and muscles in space. The results from this experiment apply directly to the planned long term stays on the International Space Station.

Another CSA experiment looks at the effects of zero gravity on the starfish embryo.

Both CSA experiments will help researchers understand how these small sea creatures contribute to the removal of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Cometary knots
PHOTO CAPTION: THESE gigantic, tadpole-shaped objects are probably the result of a dying star's last gasps. Dubbed "cometary knots" because their glowing heads and gossamer tails rememble comets, the gaseous objects probably were formed during a star's final stages of life. Hubble astronomer Robert O'Dell and graduate student Kerry Handron of Rice University in Houston, Texas, discovered thousands of these knots while exploring the Helix nebula, the closest nebula to Earth at 450 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Although ground-based telescopes have revealed such objects, astronomers have never seen so many of them.

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