Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 263, A Delicate

Balance.

I'm Pat Ryan.

On this podcast, we talk with scientists, engineers, astronauts, and other folks about

their part in America's Space Exploration Program.

And today, it's scientists as we get into the details of what being in space does to

your puny human body.

The most obvious consequence of your being off of the earth and in the reduced gravity

environment of space is this plane that can be, you float, speaking for myself, and I

think most of the rest of us, that would be outstanding.

But beyond the g-witness of you floating and also past the concerns surrounding how

do I work when everything else is floating too, there is another concern that is both

immediate and long term.

And that is, what effects does reduced gravity have on your body, on your health, right

now, and potentially down the road?

Since even before the first American flew in space more than 60 years ago, scientists

have been working to answer those questions and to develop countermeasures to those

deleterious effects so men and women in space will be able to do work.

Today, we're going to talk about that with two NASA scientists at the forefront of the

research into the effort to make space safer for the humans who go there.

Dr. Scott Wood is the neuroscience laboratory manager at the Johnson Space Center and the

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