How does the body change after time in space?

There's isolation and confinement.

There's the microgravity environment itself and our scientists are taking all that into account.

It's Thursday January 11th, but would you look at that? Today is Science Friday. I'm Cyfry producer Kathleen Davis. We hear it from astronauts all the time.

Being in space aboard the International Space Station changes a lot of things in the body,

from bone and muscle strength to mental health. As NASA prepares to visit Mars, the

agency is launching a huge effort to better understand the physical

changes that happen in space.

We'll get to that conversation in just a bit, but first we're revisiting a chat from last year about how a certain type of

mushroom could boost brain function. If they're anything like me, you love a good

mushroom, sauteed and a little butter on top of pasta or pizza.

Mmm, mmm.

You know for centuries a special kind of mushroom has been used in Chinese medicine for improving memory the lion's main

mushroom and now a study has confirmed what herbalists have long said there are

properties in the lion's main mushroom that build brain cells.

Could the mushroom help protect against dementia and Alzheimer's?

Joining me is the co-author of the study published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

Dr Ramone Martinez Marmal, research

fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute based in Brisbane, Australia.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you very much, Sarah. Nice to have you. So you isolated brain stimulating

compounds, what exactly do these compounds do? First of all, we just put them on top of neurons, actually, neurons from the brain of mice,

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