Stay Curious

SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND UNLOCK ONE MORE ARTICLE FOR FREE.

Sign Up

VIEW OUR Privacy Policy


Discover Magazine Logo

WANT MORE? KEEP READING FOR AS LOW AS $1.99!

Subscribe

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

FIND MY SUBSCRIPTION
Advertisement

Investigating the "Charlie Brown Effect": Astronauts' Chubby Faces and Hot-Sauce Cravings

Discover the Charlie Brown effect and its impact on astronauts' food preferences in zero gravity. Why do they crave spicy foods?

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

One of these pockets must have Tabasco.

Does this zero gravity make me look fat? Yup. It's called the Charlie Brown effect, according to Michele Perchonok, NASA's shuttle food system manager, and it's not because she's fattening them up with shrimp cocktail and chicken consommé

. Without the benefit of gravity, bodily fluids accumulate in the head, giving the astronauts rounder, cartoon-like faces. As anyone who's had a cold knows, more fluid in our facial cavities also means congestion and weakening our sense of smell. But is lack of gravity actually responsible to for all this? There's only one way to find out: "Perchonok has asked [food engineer Jean Hunter] and her crew at Cornell to test the stuffy nose theory. To do that on Earth, volunteers will spend several weeks in a bed where their heads are lower than their feet to try to re-create that Charlie Brown effect." ...

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe
Advertisement

0 Free Articles