Author Description

With the development of space flight, the new environmental parameter weightlessness or microgravity has become a powerful tool to biologists. Manipulating the g factor from its norm of 1 down to nearly zero offers the opportunity of studying the mechanisms of biological response to the gravity stimulus. The relationships of gravity, and its absence, to structure, function and evolution of living cells, organs or organisms were extensively dealt with during the symposium on Biological Response to Gravity. Commencing with theoretical considerations, the symposium explored results on adaptation processes of subcellular and cellular structures, developmental biology, polarity and graviresponses in plants, and musculoskeletal and cardiovascular phenomena in mammals, including humans. Human expeditions to Mars have been considered as an ideal candidate for international cooperation in space enterprises for the next century. To this end, discussions took place regarding the problems arising during long-term human stay in space and potential concepts to counteract physiological and psychological stress were submitted, incorporating both habitability and architecture considerations.