Under stressful situations, normally, there is a change in genetic expression.

Accordingly there were changes, but, the unexpected finding was that, these changes in gene expressions, seemed to have accelerated(6 times more) during the latter 6 months of the mission.

Telomeres, are the “caps” that protect the ends of DNA strands.

On Earth, these telomeres get depleted over the course of a person’s lifetime as each round of DNA replication wears away at them.

However, in space, the findings were contradictory to what the scientists were expecting....

To study the influence of microgravity, radiation and confinement in long-duration spaceflight, NASA selected twins Scott and Mark Kelly for a unique mission. Scott went to space while Mark was chosen as the control to stay on earth for comparison.

The one year long space mission spanned ac...

A decline in cognitive efficiency was reported.

NASA had prepared a set of questions to assess various mental state and cognition.

Upon return, even though Scott’s in-flight measures were stable, his “cognitive efficiency,” or his speed and accuracy in completi...

His gut microbiome showed altered bacterial proportions, although the overall bacterial diversity was intact.

Several proteins also changed during the spaceflight.

• Elevated levels of collagen, a structural protein was seen in his urine. Looking at this measure alon...