Did you know…?
Space makes you taller.
Astronauts often gain a full two inches in height while in space for more than 12 weeks. Near-weightless conditions cause fluid to gather in the spinal discs, while the spine itself grows slightly longer because it does not have to bear the weight of the body. Interestingly, space suits are actually made two inches taller than the astronaut’s normal height to account for this phenomenon.
Astronauts also lose weight and bone mass while in space; although they gain back the weight within a few days of returning to Earth, the bone loss can be permanent.
Did you also know…?
- Science & Nature
- A poem about drinking can help you remember the digits of pi.
- The Sun is going to go through a major change in 2012—it’s going to flip.
- Earthquakes can cause strange lights to appear in the sky.
- A note jotted in the margin of a book has driven mathematicians crazy for four centuries.
- Once a year in Honduras, it rains fish.
- There are stones in Death Valley that move themselves.
- Most of your body’s cells are not your own.
- At liftoff, the Space Shuttle weighs as much as 1,000 Statues of Liberty.
- The world’s first website was about the web.
- One man visited the Moon—and stayed.
- Harrison Ford has a spider—and an ant!—named after him.
- The seventh planet in our solar system was originally named George’s Star.
- Stress can trigger Exploding Head Syndrome.
- February 3 was the coldest day in North American history.