When humans conquered space travel, they also stumbled across a pretty negative side effect. At Researchfest 2018, John Noone from DCU detailed his work, which aims to counteract these effects.

“Some seven years after US president John F Kennedy gave his speech on the challenges of space flight … we conquered the moon,” Dublin City University’s John Noone told the Researchfest audience at Inspirefest 2018.

It was a momentous achievement best summated in the immortal words of Neil Armstrong who called the move “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

However, Noone added that this new step brought with it a new obstacle: gravity.

He detailed the myriad ways that the effects of gravity can adversely affect humans, one being that it opens people up to a number of diseases related to sedentary activity.

Noone explained how, through his PhD research, he is developing countermeasures for the effects of space travel on our physiology.

Words by Eva Short