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so a ton of human research experiments

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take place onboard the international

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space station because a lot happens to

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the human body when you're in

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microgravity i'm joined now by one of

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the principal investigators for one such

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research study dr stephen boyd who's the

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pi for the t-bone study and you got you

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guys are looking at bones you're looking

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at you know kind of the

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deep insides of our bodies when you're

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up there first off give me a little

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general background what happens to bones

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when you're up in microgravity oh thanks

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dan um

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well what we know that for sure when

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where people are spending time in space

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there's a lot of uh

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the lack of gravity which is something

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that we've experienced every day on

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earth

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isn't existing anymore and so with those

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bone with the lack of gravity our bones

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actually adapt very quickly

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so normally as we get older we'll lose

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about a percent of bone mass per year

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um on earth but when we're in space

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actually we can lose up to one to one

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and a half percent per month so it's

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kind of like aging and fast motion

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exactly it's a really accelerated aging

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process for for your bones

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and so that can really affect um

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the most important thing is it'll affect

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is your bone strength possibly so

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what we're interested in is what happens

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in the space in the space environment in

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terms of the bones both in terms of

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how much bone loss that occurs and how

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that might influence the bone strength

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okay and you guys are going to be

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testing out a new technique for this

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research study why don't you tell me a

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little bit about what you guys are doing

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that's new to help track this bone loss

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in the astronauts well the typical way

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that people measure bones is they look

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at bone density and that's a standard

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tool we use on earth all the time for

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measuring how how well people's bones

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are are adapted to the

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their function

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um the problem with bone density is it's

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really a measure of how much bone we

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have what we're using is a new tool that

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can measure at very high resolution the

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three-dimensional bone architecture we

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do this at the wrist and ankle of people

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but we can measure at a resolution of

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about 60 micrometers which if you

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compare to human hair which is about 100

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micrometers oh wow it's very fine detail

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so as opposed to looking at density what

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we're interested in is looking at the

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underlying structure

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density is an important measure and it's

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typically of interest because it can

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relate to how strong somebody's bones

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are but fundamentally what we really

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want to know is is the strength of the

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bones not particularly their density and

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so by looking at this detailed micro

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architecture this this detailed

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structure we get a much better idea of

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what's going on in terms of adaptation

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to the loads or lack thereof in space so

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really just kind of getting the whole

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picture so i know one of the other

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things you guys are looking for is

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actually the susceptibility that

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individuals might have to bone loss is

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that true that's right so if if we can

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look at the long-term effects of of this

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bone loss in space with with the

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astronauts

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we will be able to track very precisely

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how that architecture changes over time

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and so when we get a better

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understanding of how that architecture

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relates to the bone strength then we can

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use that information so that when we

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bring a new person into a study or an

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investigation we can already see where

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they are relative to the other data that

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we've already collected so so

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what is this study going to mean for

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future space fliers what are you guys

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hoping to learn from this that's going

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to you know make the job easier make the

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job better for the astronauts of

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tomorrow well we're really wanting to

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shift away or add to i guess our

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measures of bone density to understand

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the long-term consequences so what's

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really interesting for us actually is

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not only what happens to

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the bones during space but what happens

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during the recovery period so

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typically the way we measure recovery

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right now for bones is we look at bone

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density and typically after a year or so

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people get back to close to normal

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levels after being in space

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but

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what we know is that the underlying

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micro architecture this structure

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underneath may not be the same as it was

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before they left earth

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and so

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that kind of information will not only

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be important for understanding long-term

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space flight for for astronauts but will

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also be important for understanding the

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long-term uh implications of bone

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architectural changes in people on earth

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okay so and final question so we talked

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a little bit about the beginning how

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being in space is kind of like aging

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everybody down here on earth is aging

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obviously are there going to be any

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benefits for those of us down here that

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aren't going to space from research like

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this yeah absolutely i mean as you said

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at the at the ons at the outset of this

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uh uh discussion

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that this is really a model in space of

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accelerated aging so what we can learn

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in six months of of space flight would

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take us a decade on earth so this really

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accelerates the whole process of

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learning how microarchitecture relates

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to uh bone strength in the end so really

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interested in these outcomes very very

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cool stuff again dr stephen boyd the

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principal investigator of t-bone one of

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the new bone studies taking place right

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now on board the international space

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station doctor thanks so much for