foreign
the beauty of these crystals goes far
beyond the vivid colors and rich
patterns that you are seeing here
these are protein crystals and they may
prove to be to drug researchers what
blueprints are to architects
building on this technology these and
other scientists hope to discover new
ways of fighting cancer aids diabetes
high blood pressure and their list goes
on
what makes this research more promising
than ever before is the fact that these
crystals were grown in space
dr charlie bug with the university of
alabama at birmingham is the principal
investigator gravity affects the crystal
growth processes and by eliminating
gravity we can control these processes
in a way that's totally impossible on
earth protein crystal growth is just one
of 11 experiments that the astronauts
will perform aboard the next flight of
the space shuttle the experiments are to
be performed in the mid-deck or living
area of the shuttle the project names
may sound foreign to most phased
partitioning experiment aggregation of
red blood cells isoelectric focusing but
they translate into new understanding
and new answers in the fields of life
science and basic physics
six of the mid-deck experiments are
being managed by nasa's marshall space
flight center in huntsville alabama
here pilot dick covey and mission
specialist george pinky nelson and mike
lounge get hands-on experience at
marshall with the actual hardware
they'll operate in space
two of these experiments will seek new
ways of separating cells
the phase partitioning experiment
separates materials by keying in on the
physical behavior of fluids
while isoelectric focusing explores ways
to separate cells with electrical
currents
yet another experiment measures how
cells come together in this case red
blood cells
samples have been taken from donors with
heart disease cancer diabetes and
hypertension scientists will study how
the organization of these cells affect
blood flow in space the payback here on
earth could be improved clinical
research and diagnostic testing
a basic component in everything from
airliners
to surgical instruments
to home appliances is the magnet
this special space furnace will meld
techniques for making magnets that are
stronger and more lightweight
gravity weakens magnets manufactured on
the earth could space-based studies
overcome some of the problems presented
by gravity
nasa engineers hope the automated
directional solidification furnace will
answer that question it's called
automated by the way because all the
astronauts have to do is throw these two
switches to perform this 10 hour
experiment
another experiment defies the old adage
that everybody talks about the weather
but nobody does anything about it
the mesoscale or large-scale lightning
experiment will put astronauts on the
lookout for large storm systems at night
which they hope to capture with existing
on-board cameras
the space shuttle mid-deck was not
originally meant to be a lab but ever
since the third shuttle flight it's been
proving to be an excellent science
facility the science community's demand
for space on the mid-deck has
accelerated since then and for many good
reasons you can fly very low-cost
experiments in the mid-deck you don't
have a lot of resources but they're a
lot it's amazing how much science can be
done with little resources
mission manager ed valentine with the
marshall center points out another
advantage of the middeck perishable
samples like proteins from this lab can
be loaded just hours before launch
now when the space shuttle returns to
space once more it will take us all a
step closer to a wide range of potential
benefits here on the earth
you