Living in Space Changes the Body and Cells

When Scott Kelly entered the ISS, there was no gravity pushing down his spine. In space, he was about 3 cm taller than on Earth. He also did not have to use his muscles much. But other changes happened to Scott Kelly that no one had seen before. The way his genes worked changed. Scientists call this gene expression. If a person is in a very stressful environment, different genes will express themselves. As soon as Scott got into space, there was a huge change in over 1,000 genes that are changing a lot. So clearly, the body and cells were adapting to this new environment of space.