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Space Science

SpinCam: High-Gravity (100G) Camera 21

Posted by timothy from the and-they're-edible-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Centrifuge-cameras began exploration of genetic changes at the extremes of high gravity-- in the only animal with a completely sequenced gene library. Students at Harvey Mudd designed the 100G camera, Stanford is doing the gene array and NASA is spinning the 1 millimeter worms that are the model system for how to adapt and survive 100-times your terrestrial weight. Accelerated aging and slowed DNA repair are just two biological consequences of gravity changes. The Japanese (NASDA) are building the space station centrifuge for 2006. What other garden-variety objects can be photographed in that kind of ultra-spindryer?"
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SpinCam: High-Gravity (100G) Camera More

SpinCam: High-Gravity (100G) Camera

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  • "accelerated aging" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Unknown Poltroon ( 31628 ) <unknown_poltroon1sp@myahoo.com> on Monday September 23, 2002 @09:49AM (#4310975)
    A lot of the science fiction stories i read speak of living longer in zero/low g, since obviously theres less strain on most of the systems of the body. I wonder if this is finally evidence for this fun idea?

    • Re:"accelerated aging" (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tid242 ( 540756 )
      A lot of the science fiction stories i read speak of living longer in zero/low g, since obviously theres less strain on most of the systems of the body.

      i was sort of wondering about this as well, from the article ilnked to in the post on astrobio.net (link [astrobio.net]) it stated the following: Astronauts can suffer from motion sickness, bone loss, muscle degeneration (atrophy) and blood vessel problems during weightlessness.

      so apparently the sci.fi is er. sci.fi... :) although if i remember correctly JR Hadden from "Contact" the movie based upon Sagan's book had said that the 0 gravity slowed his cancer, which probably has some biological merit if it were actually in the book (instead of just the movie), which it probably was as Sagan worked very closely with the screen writers et al. (i personally haven't read the book, but believe the movie was one of the last things Sagan took part in, and unfortunately he was unable to see the movie as he died of cancer shortly before its debut...). hmmm... offtopic, but yea, :)

      to the best of my [limited] knowledge anyway, please correct me if i'm wrong.

      -tid242

      • Astronauts can suffer from motion sickness, bone loss, muscle degeneration (atrophy) and blood vessel problems during weightlessness.

        Isn't this just the body adapting to the new environment? In low-g you don't need strong bones and muscles to support your weight and the blood vessels need not to be as strong as they don't have to support the hydrostatic pressure. By getting rid of unnecessary structures the body conserves resources - maybe that way one is able to survive with a lower metabolic turnover rate (which, according to research done on animals, could make a longer living-span possible).
    • nothing new... Vegeta has some of those for training

  • Excuse me (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mortis_aeturnus ( 606421 )
    only animal with a fully-sequenced genome
    I believe that the human genome project also has a complete sequence [ibiblio.org] of our genome as well.

    • Re:Excuse me (Score:2, Funny)

      by Niksie3 ( 222515 )
      any volumnteers to go and gain 100 times your current weight? no, nobody? ok, I guess we will have to go with worms instead...

    • Re:Excuse me (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      From the same article [nasa.gov]: C. elegans is currently the only animal with a fully-sequenced genome, and DNA microarrays are available that contain nearly every one of the 19,000 genes in the C. elegans genome. Those microarrays don't contain the human genome, and the human genome has great uncertainties and gaps.

  • Whoops (Score:3, Funny)

    by greenhide ( 597777 ) <`moc.ylkeewellivc' `ta' `todhsalsnadroj'> on Monday September 23, 2002 @10:25AM (#4311278)
    Oh, this was an experiment?

    quickly removes wet laundry

  • 100G? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    100G?
    Is there anything left from the worms, after the thing stops?
    Except for the wet spots, I mean :)

    Greetings
    Stefan

    • Re:100G? (Score:2, Informative)

      by gene_tailor ( 601527 )
      Well, actually,if you read the details, the worms do survive the spin. They don't have any bones to break and their structure is simple enough that it adapts to being squished.
  • For the life of me, I can't think of a reason they should be making a camera that can withstand all that accelleration. Set it up as a telemicroscope, place reflectors (which WOULD have to withstand the force) angled around the sample chamber, and place the camera next to the hub, pointing outward at the sample cell, stearable to look directly into the cell, or at points on the mirrors for side views. If I misread the article, and they're actually viewing organelles instead of just down to teh cell level, I retract the telemicroscope suggestion, as they'd need more like an oil film contact system.
    • I'm not an engineer, but I'm curious why it took them a year to develop the camera. Seems like the most they'd have to do is pot the thing in epoxy and plug it in. Maybe they built the thing one evening then spent the rest of the year putting off writing the documentation?
      • Umm... i'm not sure but i'd bet there would be issues with finding glass that would take the strain. I know my old hard drive had a void warranty at 50G's

        I've heard thats about what you get if you drop something hard from 3 or 4 feet onto a concrete floor. I don't know many cameras that would survive that kind of force contiuously.
        • we're talking about a piece of glass (or plastic, depending on the camera) thats probably less than half a centimeter across. I doubt theres anything in a miniture CCD camera that would break under its own weight even at hundreds of G's.

          I'm not sure how shock and vibration ratings translate to continious G ratings, or if theres any relation at all. It seems that a shock pulse would be more damaging than gentle acceleration, as it is transmitted through the material, causing intense local deformation (relative to slowly rising acceleration).
    • Why not just put a camera in the center of the centrifuge, and have it snap a frame on some integer multiple of the centrifuge's frequency?
  • Harvey Mudd College was not linked in the story, and was not properly linked on the webpage. I feel it is my duty to correct this.
    http://www.hmc.edu
    http://www.eng.hmc.edu (Engineering Department)

  • I'm surprised (Score:3, Funny)

    by wizarddc ( 105860 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2002 @10:53AM (#4319244) Homepage Journal
    I don't understand why they need to run these tests. Why don't they just watch Dragonball? Goku trained in 100x gravity, and his power level skyrocketed. Aren't they worried about these worms becoming Super Saiyin?

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