Traveling into the space is dangerous for a lot of very obvious reasons — traveling off of Earth on a rocket has its risks, after all — but even when everything according to the plan well it seems that a brief stay in space has the potential to alter a person’s very DNA.

That’s the takeaway from a long-term NASA study that used astronaut Scott Kelly and his twin brother Mark as guinea pigs to see how living in space can affect the most basic building blocks of life.

Scott Kelly has spent over 500 days in space overall, but a huge chunk of that came with a single mission which had him stay aboard the International Space Station for 342 days. His brother Mark, who is a retired astronaut, is his identical twin and has the same DNA. This provided a never-before-possible opportunity for NASA to study how long-term space travel affects the human body and the genes that make us who we are. As it turns out, space really does change us, and upon Scott’s return to Earth it was discovered that his DNA has significantly changed.

 

Most of Scott’s genes did indeed return to normal after a brief time back here on Earth, but not all of them. According to researchers, around 7% of Scott Kelly’s genes have shown long-lasting changes when compared to his brother’s. Those changes have remained for the two years since he returned to solid ground, which surprised even him.

The “Twins Study” was a preliminary step in the lead-up to an eventual long-haul manned mission to Mars. NASA has some vague plans in place for such a mission and is currently working on the technology to actually make that happen, but the human element cannot be overlooked. A Mars mission would last as long as three years, which would obviously be the longest stretch that any human has been away from Earth. Can the human body handle such a journey? We might not have to wait very long to find out, as some are expecting the first manned Mars trip to happen as soon as the 2030s.

Astronauts, apart from living happy lives back on Earth after the fact, should be spending most of their time either in space or communicating science to the masses – or both. They should not have to waste any time arguing with flat-earthers on TV, nor should they have to shut down the President of the United States.

Sadly, although a new year has begun, this is the age of Alternative Facts. Shortly after ending 2017 on a mind-achingly sad comment about climate change science, Trump started 2018 as he meant to go on: tweeting inflammatory remarks, including one in response to North Korea's drama-matching leader, Kim Jong-un, wherein he spoke of an omnipresent nuclear button on his desk.

“I too have a Nuclear Button,” POTUS replied, with his usual eloquence and attention to proper grammar and punctuation. “It is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

Apart from being the most nauseating and concerning genital measuring contest in human history, this is clearly not how nuclear strikes are launched, and anyway, the physical size of the button is irrelevant to how many nukes it could hypothetically launch.

Weirdly, this was probably Trump’s attempt at a metaphor, where the button referred to the size and destructive capability of America’s nuclear arsenal.

In any case, it’s obviously ridiculous to taunt a volatile nuclear power like this, which is why one Mark Kelly – a retired astronaut, and brother of fellow spacefarer Scott Kelly – decided to step in, as spotted by the Washington Press.

Trump hasn’t replied to this purveyor of the cosmos at the time of writing, and he’s unlikely to. Kelly, for one thing, is simply too on the ball for a linguistically challenged President to fend off. Shortly beforehand, Kelly spotted another of Trump’s tweets. Although not exactly inflammatory, it makes a claim which is beyond ludicrous. Now, clearly, nothing Trump has done has had an effect on the safety of air travel.

There’s no evidence to suggest anything has changed in this regard, especially on Trump’s orders. Air travel has indeed never been safer, but Trump claiming credit for this is like a hamster taking credit for writing Wonderwall by Oasis. It would be funny, if it wasn't so offensively daft.

Kelly took another shot at the Tweeter-in-Chief, using nothing but factual information and one hell of a slap down at the end.

We, for one, hope that Kelly keeps this up. Maybe it’s the Britishness in us coming out, but sometimes the best form of resistance is a strongly worded letter – or tweet, in this case.

Via IFLScience