Lung Tissue Operations and Removal: On Saturday, the crew took samples and fixed media in the Tissue Bags, before inserting them in to a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). After completing the experiment, the crew disassembled the Lung Tissue hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). The Lung Tissue investigation uses …
The three orbiting Expedition 53 crew members explored growing new lung tissue, foods that affect the immune system and microscopic particles suspended in liquids. Another trio of crew members is just a day away from launching to the International Space Station and beginning a five-and-a-half month stay in space. Over the weekend, the crew wrapped …
The response of cloud characteristics to increasing aerosol concentrations represents one of the largest uncertainties in our current understanding of climate change. We need to better understand the ability of aerosol particles to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) under relevant atmospheric conditions. CCN activation is determined by particle size, composition, and water vapor supersaturation. […]
The Small Stuff Matters The most important form of life in the ocean also happens to be the smallest. Phytoplankton provide the foundation of marine food webs, regulating global climate and the transport of nutrients and carbon. Phytoplankton populations fluctuate, sometimes growing high in numbers if they receive plenty of sunlight or nutrients. Other times, […]
Most of us think that our everyday lives put us under pressure, but the real pressure – in a physical sense – happens deep below the ocean surface. On Friday, most of us in the NAAMES III science teams aboard the Atlantis performed an exercise that clearly demonstrates that pressure. The ship is always buzzing […]
The Scripps research group focuses on aerosols, which are microscopic liquids and solids suspended in the air. Aerosols may be formed over the ocean when wave generated bubbles burst and eject particles into the atmosphere. Aerosols may also be formed from gas phase compounds released from the ocean that then react with sunlight and oxidants […]
Sea Sweep gently surfs Generating aerosol On the Atlantic While some aboard the Atlantis are fighting bubbles with rigor (see September 1, 2017 post), the atmospheric chemists on the bow of the ship are busy generating them. Not the same ones that the biologists were battling in the earlier post, but new ones that mimic […]
A Light Puzzle Today we were able to finish our first official station of NAAMES 3! Our group, the UCSB Optics team, saw a whirlwind of activity as we deployed half a dozen different instruments to begin to characterize all the different ways that light interacts with the ocean. You could call us the most […]
Lighting Effects: The crew completed a visual assessment test in the Crew Quarters (CQs) by setting the light to the correct mode, turning all other light sources in the CQ off, and performing one Numerical Verification Test and one Color Discrimination Test. The crew will then photograph the completed tests, before transferring the photos for downlink. …
