Japanese astronaut spurts in space

muon · 9 Jan 2018 at 15:53

Efour said:
In a developing young child it is i hope so or we would all be 1 foot tall like at birth?

After our bodies reaches a maximum length is assume it also stops growing. Living in a zero g environment would probably allow for a bit of separation on the vertebrae and leg joints giving you a bit of extra height/length.

Are you gonna present some medical paper saying it doesn't grow? I don't get where this is going.

I don't get the puzzle. As you said it is all about compression and decompression.

The question that remains is how body tissue (such as the spinal cord) generally responds to this. I would say it is capable of adjusting, an grow and shrink.

englishpremier · 9 Jan 2018 at 17:53

robfosters said:
I once got 4 inches taller in 8 hours. Can you work out how?

It didn’t involve shoes or a large hat of any kind.

You were lying down

robfosters · 9 Jan 2018 at 18:03

englishpremier said:
You were lying down

Nope.

Efour · 9 Jan 2018 at 18:12

You were on LSD?

robfosters · 9 Jan 2018 at 18:23

Efour said:
You were on LSD?

That would have been a lot more enjoyable.

adolf hamster · 9 Jan 2018 at 18:56

3 minutes said:
That far back, they didn't have the knowledge or tech to be able to tell if someone had been permanently damaged or not.

or presumably the inclination, i cant imagine most folk who ended up on the rack would have long for this world anyway

BennyC · 9 Jan 2018 at 21:04

How much taller would you be if you were born in space and did all your growing in zero mavity?...

Of course, I would expect earths mavity to render you effectively useless at anything if you did ever step foot on earth

Angilion · 9 Jan 2018 at 23:15

BennyC said:
How much taller would you be if you were born in space and did all your growing in zero mavity?...

Of course, I would expect earths mavity to render you effectively useless at anything if you did ever step foot on earth

It's worse than that. Humans are strongly adapted to the mavity on Earth's surface and a whole slew of health problems result from extended exposure to zero g. It's not only the well known muscle loss. It's bone loss, blood loss, incorrect distribution of blood and a slew of other things. It's quite difficult for astronauts to deal with even months in zero g and they're very fit. If you were born and grew to adulthood in zero g, I would expect 1g to kill you if you survived to adulthood at all. Or if you existed at all - it's not known if a successful pregnancy is possible in zero g.

EDIT: Here's one I didn't know about - zero g affects proprioception. So you lose your awareness of the positioning of you own body.

"The first night in space when I was drifting off to sleep," one Apollo astronaut said in a NASA interview, "I suddenly realized that I had lost track of ... my arms and legs. For all my mind could tell, my limbs were not there."

There's some evidence that it has an effect on the functioning of genes, which in turn would have some as yet unknown effects.

https://www.space.com/38575-nasa-twins-study-spaceflight-changes-astronaut-genes.html

There's also some evidence that it adversely affects vision and cognitive ability. Not enough is known but none of it is good.

Azza · 10 Jan 2018 at 06:22

Turns out its actually 2cm and not 9cm... he's actually measured his height now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42630473

LOAM · 10 Jan 2018 at 07:42

Fake news, even from space!

Liquid_Entity · 10 Jan 2018 at 07:43

They call them belters!

LOAM · 10 Jan 2018 at 07:45

robfosters said:
I once got 4 inches taller in 8 hours. Can you work out how?

It didn’t involve shoes or a large hat of any kind.

You had horrific leg extension operations and metal rods added?

Undesirable · 10 Jan 2018 at 08:12

robfosters said:
I once got 4 inches taller in 8 hours. Can you work out how?

It didn’t involve shoes or a large hat of any kind.

You slowly stood on tippy-toes... over the period of eight hours.

Or... You were tortured on the ol' medieval rack.

Mayhaps you were slightly spaghettified on the edge of a black hole?

robfosters · 10 Jan 2018 at 08:47

LOAM said:
You had horrific leg extension operations and metal rods added?

You’re halfway there with the metal rods.

I had a spinal fusion to correct scoliosis. A curved spine being put straight made me 4 inches taller. The downside was that once the spine and rods has fused, it can’t really grow so I’ve been stuck at 5’5 since I was 14. Proper shortarse. I’m slightly shorter than Richard Hammond lol.

wolfie138 · 10 Jan 2018 at 08:52

better than being a 5'1" hunchback though.

robfosters · 10 Jan 2018 at 09:04

True.

Kronos · 10 Jan 2018 at 10:02

I don't know about gaining 3.5 inches but I have lost height, well over an inch, dropped two shoe sizes, used to be a 9 now I am a 7 and i am sure other bits have shrunk but that might be down to lack of use.

skaif · 12 Jan 2018 at 14:58

Kronos said:
I don't know about gaining 3.5 inches but I have lost height, well over an inch, dropped two shoe sizes, used to be a 9 now I am a 7 and i am sure other bits have shrunk but that might be down to lack of use.

LoadsaMoney · 12 Jan 2018 at 16:17

lol, not what i thought it was about

silversurfer · 12 Jan 2018 at 16:39

robfosters said:
You’re halfway there with the metal rods.

I had a spinal fusion to correct scoliosis. A curved spine being put straight made me 4 inches taller. The downside was that once the spine and rods has fused, it can’t really grow so I’ve been stuck at 5’5 since I was 14. Proper shortarse. I’m slightly shorter than Richard Hammond lol.

Sounds pretty serious condition, congrats on the op then. I was going to guess on a negative G machine or a lot of diving maybe alters the weight on the spine. Fairly sure everyone is taller in the morning first thing vs last thing at night due to 40lbs of atmosphere sitting on your head all day