Comments freeztar has made

Science!

As a scientist, I'm quite fond of the first paragraph. ;)

Well done on the explanation Umbra, keep it up. :)On Umbra on calculating CO2 weight posted 1 year, 3 months ago 19 Responses

Really??

As a resident of Atlanta, I find this claim surprising and at complete odds with what I see going on around me. On Housing slump is slowing sprawl in metro Atlanta posted 1 year, 9 months ago 4 Responses

Ethics and why we use animals in experiments

I know what you're saying canis. I'm not trying to be "ruthless" and I'm sure most serious scientists are not. It's an ethical debate and as such we may have to agree to disagree.

The point I was trying to make in the last sentence of my last post is that we use rats because it is more ethical than using humans. To someone who sees all life as equal, I see the dilemma. Nonetheless, if a researcher came to my house and told me he was taking me to a lab to test a new cancer drug and that I would likely die from the experiment, I would be quite sad that it was me instead of a rat. It puts it in perspective when you think of it this way.

As unfortunate as it is, at this point in medical research we need "guinea pigs" of some sort. Hopefully in the future we will have sophisticated computer models that can take the place of rats and other animals, but we are not even close to that yet.

So NASA sending a rat into space to test future effects on humans, though not without ethical issues, is a valid experiment imho. I know it seems humorous at first glance and as such is subject to attacks from those not fully understanding the purpose, but if you follow this develop I think you will find it not so silly afterall.  On NASA has bold plans to ... send rodents into orbit posted 1 year, 11 months ago 12 Responses

Science and Public Ignorance

This article is a good example of the general public's ignorance of science. NASA is soliciting research proposals, which means we don't even know what they will be studying yet. A bit quick to call this ridiculous don't you think?

Have a look at this article from CNN, a decade ago.
"The "rat astronauts," all between 5 and 15 days old, had to be age-specific because scientists wanted to study critical periods in neurological development. An advantage to using the rats is that they develop much more quickly than humans in certain areas. A rat, for example, develops a nervous system in three weeks that would take years in a human.

Scientists aren't sure what to expect when the rats return to Earth, but they hope they will provide clues to how the most complex organ in the body develops. "We really don't understand a lot about how the brain develops," said William Heetdeerks of the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists believe neurological development in microgravity will be different than on Earth. "If you don't have the influence of gravity at such and such an age, even when the animal comes back to earth, it will be a space animal and it may never be able to re-adapt its nervous system to earth." Heetdeerks said."

That is important research if we plan on putting humans in space for LONG periods of time. NASA does not just sit around and come up with kooky ideas to try. Every mission has to have relevance to justify the price tag. They do not have an unlimited budget.

As far as atmospheric studies go, NASA is already on it.
On NASA has bold plans to ... send rodents into orbit posted 1 year, 11 months ago 12 Responses