Life Sciences and Space Research

Book excerpt: Life Sciences and Space Research, Volume XVIII is a collection of articles on space biology. The book describes the presence of organic molecules found in interstellar space, comets, and meteorites. The text also addresses the role of comets in giving rise to new studies in cometary chemistry, as the source of plasma, or as supplying the mechanism for the formation of amino acids, glycine, and guanine. One paper addresses the possibility of life on the planet Mars touching on chemical reactions of nutrient compound decay and other physio-chemical changes. The book also notes the contribution of cometary volatiles to the study of the primitive earth plus the possible role of metal ions and clays in prebiotic chemistry. Other papers discuss radiation biology concerning both radiobiological results from experiments done in spaceflight and ground laboratories such as the degeneration of rabbit tissues after heavy irradiation. The book then evaluates gravitational biology, including topics such as physiological reactions during acute adaptation to reduced gravity; land plant evolution and gravity; and the development of Polyporus brumalis basidomycete, a kind of fungi, in conditions of weightlessness. Molecular biologists, space engineers, biologists, meteorologists, and genetic engineers will find this book highly valuable.