How ageing mimics the effects of space travel

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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space on one mission

NASA

Your life may be more like an astronaut’s than you think, at least when it comes to ageing. Astronauts who spend a long time on the International Space Station can age the equivalent of 20 years in just six months due to life in low gravity and exposure to high levels of cosmic radiation. What’s that got to do with life here on Earth? More than you think. Our sedentary lifestyles can have similar effects on muscle and bone as weightlessness, and the disrupted circadian rhythms and social isolation astronauts experience are also common here. Columnist Graham Lawton explores the genetic and cellular disruptions these effects can cause and what we can learn from astronauts to stave off the hallmarks of ageing. Read more

The easiest and quickest way to see Stonehenge is to join the traffic jam of cars on the UK’s A303 road. And there is no denying that the 5000-year-old Neolithic monument is one of the world’s most spectacular roadside views. As is the case for everyone who drives past, Sydney-based reporter James Woodford says his first glimpse of the giant stone circle from inside a vehicle was breathtaking. Tick. Job done. Right? The thing is, if you pass by it on the highway, you can say you have seen a magnificent archaeological site that has puzzled researchers for centuries – but you haven’t felt it. Read more

Some people experience vivid, incessant dreams that leave them feeling exhausted the next day, with researchers calling for this "epic dreaming" to be classed as a sleep disorder. Read more

There was a sudden acceleration to the average global sea level around 2012. Senior reporter Michael Le Page explains why. Watch here

Jennie Durant

Jennie Durant's Bitter Honey is a great exposé of the true cost of industrially farming US honeybees, finds Thomas Lewton. But the book's grim figures of bee death alone may not prompt deep change – how about seeing them as fellow creatures? Read more

This week, our readers want to know:

When the sun eventually expires and swells to engulf Earth, might the remnants of landfill and deeply buried nuclear waste be recycled to form star dust that will become new planets or life forms?

and

Why do some of us enjoy exercising and others don’t?

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