Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 315, Space Biology. I'm Gary Jordan. I'll be your host today. On this podcast,

we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.

We talk a lot on this podcast of flying humans in space for better understanding what happens to the human body and how it adapts from

living in the comfort of 1G, breathing fresh air, and watching the sun rise and set once a day,

to taking away gravity in a spacecraft with regenerative life support and

16 sunrises and sunsets in a day. It can be quite a change so we investigate

this adaptation particularly in humans from many different perspectives,

whether it be looking at vision, exercise, physiology, fluid shifts, and so on.

Many of the things we learn in space about the human body can also improve life on Earth.

We can also get a better understanding of those basic mechanisms for adaptation from studying other living organisms in space.

From bacteria and fungi to animals, living organisms are used on Earth to model human disease,

responding to stress and more.

In space, they can offer a unique window into answering some interesting

questions. To help us get a better understanding into this complex and fascinating world of

space biology, we're lucky to bring in Dr.

Sharmila Batacharya, program scientist for Space Biology within the biological and

physical science division at NASA's headquarters in Washington. A seasoned scientist, Charmila has done research and developed

hardware and payloads for supporting space shuttle, international space station, and even small

satellites for decades.

All right, let's get right into it. P minus five seconds, second to county.

Mark.

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