Experiments

Central to Mark's trip is the belief that science is about exploring the places Humanity has feared to tread. To this end, Mark will be conducting a number of experiments under the direction of a number of South African scientists with the aim of expanding our knowledge of the Universe.

The most important details about these experiments - what they are and why they are important - can be found below.

experiment abstracts The very first cells that the body creates do not have a "pre-determined destiny" - unlike more mature cells they are not skin cells or liver cells or brain cells - they are simply stem-cells, which change to become a specific type of cell by responding to their environment. Understanding these cells holds the key to healing serious injuries where the cells in one part of the body have been damaged beyond repair. Space places a very different set of strains on the human body to what we encounter here on earth. Much of the science conducted in orbit has been aimed at understanding how we function when under conditions of "micro-gravity". While Mark is in space he will be monitored by a team on earth who will record (amongst other things) his heart-rate and the way his muscles react. There are many unanswered questions and conflicting reports of biological responses - Mark hopes to help clear some of them up. When we consider the threats facing Africa as a whole, few would argue that HIV and other diseases are our Nemises. In the war on disease, the frontline is within our bodies, where our immune cells interact with and (hopefully) attack the disease as it infects us. The problem facing scientists is that the combatants are too small to observe directly - we must look at various pieces of evidence to infer what happened. One of the processes which help with that is called SPC (Soluble Protein Crystallisation) which gives scientists a way to look at the weapons used by the immune system with an eye to knowing how to make them more effective.