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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		A device that may provide a better understanding of the long-term impacts of space travel
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2016-10-16 19:00:00
	Description:		There’s still a lot of the unknown when it comes to the long-term impacts of space travel, so there is a big push by NASA to better understand these effects. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, radiobiologist Matt Coleman is part of team that has developed a small medical device that provides a comprehensive in-flight medical diagnostic system. Coleman explains that it can detect diseases from long-term exposure to microgravity and exposure to radiation. "This tool we’re building, you know we think it’s going to have a huge health benefit, but it’s going to have a huge research benefit because we don’t really know how do all of these things actually respond in space, in exploration, in research animals, let alone humans. And so getting this up into space and even on the International Space Station, it will have a huge benefit, just in the research that we can do." The portable diagnostic device can also be used for battlefield medicine, in Third World countries or even in the case of a radiological event like Chernobyl or Fukishima.
	Total Play:		0