Microgravity as a research area encompasses the systematic investigation of physical, chemical, and biological processes under conditions of greatly reduced effective gravitational acceleration, such as in orbiting spacecraft, drop towers, or parabolic flights. It enables isolation of gravity-driven phenomena, allowing precise study of fluid dynamics, combustion, phase transitions, material solidification, colloidal behavior, and fundamental physics, as well as physiological and cellular responses to altered mechanical loading. Microgravity research supports development of validated models for transport processes, structure formation, and mechanobiology, and informs the design of space systems, countermeasures for human health in spaceflight, and advanced materials and processes with potential terrestrial applications.
Human stem cells from Adelaide University's Center for Cancer Biology have successfully traveled to the edge of space and back as part of a landmark mission for Australian cancer research.
Space Exploration
Oct 8, 2026
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14
In early 2024, laboratory-grown neurospheres (i.e. clusters of neural stem cells) were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) to be exposed to microgravity. The return trip was delayed several times due to bad weather ...
Space Exploration
Oct 6, 2026
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30
New research has found that the rate of hip fractures among astronauts after spaceflights lasting more than 90 days was higher than after shorter spaceflights or among people who were not astronauts. The findings of the study ...
Space Exploration
Oct 1, 2026
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69
During NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission aboard the International Space Station, astronauts will support a series of biomedical and human performance investigations, including a new collaborative effort to study how spaceflight ...
Space Exploration
Sep 24, 2026
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16
The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, preceded by decades of breakthroughs in genetics. It eventually gave us a sequence of the human genome. Yet, while the physical rules behind the genome's organization remain ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 23, 2026
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23
Intense exercise during long spaceflights helps maintain heart structure and function within a range needed to tolerate the low-gravity environment of Mars, a study co-led by a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher suggests. ...
Space Exploration
Sep 23, 2026
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15
Astronauts who undergo long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station often return with health problems that resemble some age-related conditions in people on Earth.
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2026
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14
The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is central to Einstein's general relativity. It posits that gravity must accelerate everything equally, regardless of what it is made from. For the first time, a team led by Ming-Sheng ...
As space missions become longer and ambitions for deep-space travel grow, scientists are working to understand how life beyond Earth may affect every system in the human body. Two years after her initial study took flight, ...
Space Exploration
Aug 27, 2026
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20
For astronauts in space, constipation is a well-known problem. But why this happens has long been unclear. Now, a new study from the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with NASA provides an idea of what happens in ...
Space Exploration
Aug 14, 2026
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