Q: I remember the early days leading up to the International Space Station. There was hope of learning new things, maybe advances in medicine or other areas that could be better studied in zero G. We get reports of people going to and from the station, but for years I haven’t heard anything about the scientific value, if any, of the space station. What are scientists working on up there? — Dick Parker, Denver
A: Well, they’ve definitely been busy. If Scott Kelly’s recent yearlong stint in space isn’t enough for you, scientists affiliated with the International Space Station (ISS) have conducted almost 1,800 investigations and published more than 1,100 studies since assembly of the station started in 1998.
Sometimes, constraints of life on the ISS stoke innovation. One example: In 2000, NASA recruited Scott Dulchavsky, the chairman of surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, to study how a ...
