The new era of space travel comes with an unusual health risk: dormant viruses reawakening inside the human body. Stressors unique to space, ranging from microgravity to cosmic radiation, can cause latent viruses, such as herpes and Epstein-Barr, to reactivate. This phenomenon poses a significant threat to long-duration missions, prompting a race to understand and mitigate the danger for future astronauts.
The Dormant Viruses That Wake Up in Astronauts
Because there’s a good chance that right now, you have at least one virus that’s been hiding inside of you for years, lying dormant.
Related Posts
Saccharin Shows Promise as an Antimicrobial Agent Against Drug-Resistant Infections
At a Glance Saccharin, an artificial sweetener commonly found in sugar-free products like diet sodas and yogurts, could…
Fasting, eating earlier in the day or eating fewer meals – what works best for weight loss?
chalermphon_tiam/Shutterstock Hayley O’Neill, Bond University and Loai Albarqouni, Bond University Globally, one in eight people are living with…
The Largest Comet Ever Found Is Barreling Through the Solar System
Comets are pretty weird, when you think hard about them; these icy bodies come in two varieties: long-period…
A cosmic time machine: how the James Webb Space Telescope lets us see the first galaxies in the universe
NASA/JWST Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology It has been an exciting week with the release of breathtaking…