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Lesional effects of primary cosmic heavy ions on rat brain.

Heavy ions were detected with nuclear emulsions plates fixed on the skulls of 20 rats which were exposed to cosmic rays at an altitude of 32,000 metres. Eight cases are described of correlations between ions tracks and brain lesions. The passage of heavy ions seems to cause functional rather than destructive alterations in the cells. The metabolic disturbances give a dark aspect to the neurons. The lesions generally appear in wide areas around the track and this fact suggests a physiopathological phenomenon of amplification. An evaluation of this biological hazard during flights of long duration at high altitude will be possible when the mechanism of action of heavy ions on nervous tissue is better known, and particularly if experiments carried out in accelerators confirm the small number of results obtained in flight.

Animals↗

Effects of space flight factors on the heredity of higher and lower plants.

The effects were studied of a long-term space exposure (72 days) aboard the Salyut orbital station on the following: dry seeds of Crepis capillaris (L.) Wallr. and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh, haploid and diploid strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant for adenine locus (ad) and strain LARG-I of Chlorella vulgaris Beijer. A modifying effect of space factors on radiobiological action of gamma-irradiation from 137Cs was determined with the higher plant seeds and Chlorella culture. For this, the material was partly irradiated prior to, and partly after the flight at doses of 3, 30 and 10 kr for C. capillaris, A. thaliana and Chl. vulgaris, respectively. It was shown that: (1) Space factors caused reduced survival of Arabidopsis seedlings and Chlorella and yeast cultures, reduced productivity of Chlorella cells, increased mutability of Chlorella and yeast cells and increased frequency of chromosome aberrations in cells of Crepis root meristem. There are, however, a few exceptions: cell germination of C. capillaris was enhanced while mutability of A. thaliana seeds declined. (2) Space factors increased the adverse effects of the pre-flight irradiation on all the parameters of the cultures tested. (3) Space factors had no genetic effect on the objects tested. They have, however, caused a stronger inhibition of seed germination and augmenting survival of A. thaliana seedlings and Chlorella cells.

Arabidopsis↗

Biological effects due to single accelerated heavy particles and the problems of nervous system exposure in space.

The use of accelerated nitrogen and oxygen nuclei with 270 MeV nucleon-1 at the Berkeley Bevatron allowed a beginning to be made of systematic studies of the effects of heavy particles in multicellular organisms. Initial studies will be briefly reviewed. Individual nitrogen particles produced definite light flashes, streaks and interrupted streaks when they crossed light-sensitive parts of the human retina. The possible hazard from primary heavy galactic cosmic ray particles on long-term space flights are discussed, with special attention to the nervous system.

Animals↗

Biological investigations on the orbital station "Salyut-5".

Genetic and embryological investigations were continued on the orbital station Salyut-5. The effect of space flight factors on dry Crepis capillaris (L) Wallr seeds and seedlings, dry Arabidopsis thaliana (L) Heynh seeds, Polyporus brumalis Pers. ex. Fries culture as well as on spawn development and fish behaviour was studied. Space flight factors are shown to have adverse effects with respect to some characteristics in seeds and seedlings, and to change the morphology of the fungus. Fishes appear to adapt themselves to weightlessness.

Animals↗

[Studies on hereditary variations of millet seed after high altitude balloon flight].

OBJECTIVE: To select high yield, high protein and fatty acid millet. METHOD: Air-dried seeds of millet were carried by high altitude balloon (HAB) for 8 h. Botany characteristics of these seeds were analyzed and studied after recovery. RESULT: Germinating potential rose 21.1%, germinating percentage reduced 5.2% as compared with the control; plant height was 6.8 cm lower than that of the control in SP1; while flag-leaf area and spike weight were 25% and 15.9% higher than those of the control respectively. Large-spike strains were stable in SP3 pregeny. In SP3(-2), the contents of seed protein and fatty acid were more than those of control; in SP3(-5), the average spike length was 5.8 cm, and the content of Fe element in seed was 61.5 mg/kg more than these of control; in SP4 superspike strains, spike character, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate were significantly higher than the control during growing phase and growing anaphase, photosynthetic rate in flag-leaf was over 27.9% higher than those in the control. CONCLUSION: New strains with high protein and fatty acid and high yield could be selected by HAB. The characteristics of these variations in the new strain is hereditable.

Chlorophyll↗

[Ocular effects of cosmic rays on the eyes].

The observed visual phenomena developing in humans as a result of the impact of heavy ions on the eye have been summarized. Possible mechanisms of these effects are discussed.

Cosmic Radiation↗

Solid state AgCl detectors for nuclear tracks with on- and off-response at choice: applications to life sciences.

A new concept of trackforming solid state detectors is presented. These detectors record and accumulate tracks of ionizing particles which can be revealed if they are irradiated with yellow light during the passage of the particle through the detector; otherwise the tracks are dropped by fading. Tracks stabilized by yellow light are stable for months. The detectors consist of thin layers of 200-300 micrometers of Cd-doped AgCl crystals, supported by a thin plate of quartz glass. The invisible latent tracks in these detectors are revealed at microscopically visible size by ultraviolet light. The sensitivity of the crystals against particles of different specific energy transfer depends upon the concentration of Cd; these have rather good thresholds, which permit selective recording in a well-known manner. These AgCl(Cd) crystals have a unique property amongst trackforming detectors; their response can be switched on and off at choice, for instance by electronic triggering of the stabilizing accompanying yellow light. This allows a time assignment of particle tracks, or restriction to tracks of desired particles. Examples of tracks and of applications in cosmic ray research, heavy ion physics, radiobiology and dosimetry are given.

Bacillus subtilis↗

Assignment of particle tracks to spores of Bacillus subtilis on silver chloride detectors.

In Biostack III B, flown in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, AgCl detectors were used to study ionizing effects of HZE particles on spores of Bacillus subtilis or eggs of Artemia salina. The tracks of these particles inside the detectors are used to extrapolate the path of the particle near the biological objects which are fixed at the detector surface. The closest distance to the geometric centre of the object, the so-called impact parameter, is determined with a mean accuracy of 0.3 micrometers for 1 micrometers spores. From knowledge of the lateral distribution of the energy transferred by primary and secondary ionization effects of the particle, the energy deposit and its localization at the objects can be determined. We describe some technical aspects of a video-electronic scanning system, Quantimet 720, which has been adjusted to the particular requirements of these experiments. The main improvements achieved are increased precision of coordinate measurements, objective focusing of the microscopic image combined with measurements of the density profile of particle tracks, and finally speeding up of the measurements by automatic data transfer.

Animals↗

Localization and track evaluation of HZE particles.

A new method of track-etching was developed called "individual etching", allowing increased accuracy of the localization whereby a latent track is developed under microscopic control. The influence of the humidity of the detectors at the beginning of the etch process was investigated. This influence consists in an increase of bulk and track etching rate. The scattering in experimental data, which is mostly attributed to the inhomogeneity of the material, can be partially explained by this effect, especially the difference in isotopic resolution between accelerator experiments and cosmic-ray flights.

Bacillus subtilis↗