Atheists & Agnostics

mr blur

(7,753 posts) Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:19 AM Jul 2015

Hibernating bears could hold the key to long-distance space travel

This has nothing to do with atheism, per se, but it's such a fantastic headline.

And, hey, Science, eh? Gotta love it.

Astronauts could protect themselves against bone wastage by harnessing a unique biological process that allows black bears to maintain their skeletons during hibernation.

A study has revealed that bears protect their bones from degrading, despite hardly moving for up to six months, by suppressing the usual constant release of calcium from the bones into the blood. Such a lengthy period of inactivity in humans would lead to a severely weakened bone structure.

“This could be the basis for a new therapy for astronauts, or people with a bone-related chronic illness,” said Meghan McGee-Lawrence, assistant professor in cellular biology and anatomy at Georgia Regents University in Augusta, and an author of the study.

<snip>

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/09/hibernating-bears-could-hold-the-key-to-long-distance-space-travel

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Hibernating bears could hold the key to long-distance space travel (Original Post) mr blur Jul 2015 OP

What a bear astronaut might look like... PoliticAverse Jul 2015 #1

So cute! Duppers Jul 2015 #2

This has nothing to do with atheism AlbertCat Jul 2015 #3

Thanks, this is interesting. onager Jul 2015 #4

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)

1. What a bear astronaut might look like...

Reply to mr blur (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 05:04 AM

Jul 2015

Duppers

(28,246 posts)

2. So cute!

Reply to PoliticAverse (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 09:03 AM

Jul 2015

AlbertCat

(17,505 posts)

3. This has nothing to do with atheism

Reply to mr blur (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 09:29 AM

Jul 2015

All bears are atheists.

onager

(9,356 posts)

4. Thanks, this is interesting.

Reply to mr blur (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 09:33 AM

Jul 2015

And any minute now, some right-wing pundit or Congress-critter will be mocking this research as a waste of money. They do that all the time, with just about any research that doesn't immediately benefit American business. Unless it involves studying evolution, which is always automatically wrong because Jesus.

The area where I live now has a lot of black bears. Earlier in the spring they were coming out of hibernation and getting themselves in trouble. Especially the young males, pushed out by Mom to fend for themselves. Two of the poor critters were run over and killed on the local highways.

Another young black bear woke up and went wandering around a university campus. He ended up in the back yard of the university president's house. The Bear Police just kept an eye on him and he eventually ran off into the woods. And is still at large, AFAIK.

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