Nobel theory disproved aboard space shuttle

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 37

Nobel theory disproved aboard space shuttle

NZPA-Reuter Houston Results of an experiment conducted aboard the space shuttle Columbia have disproved a 77-year-old theory for which a Swedish scientist won a Nobel Prize, scientists have said.

Robert Barany won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1914 for a theory which attempted to explain, in part, how the inner ear helps the body maintain its balance. A test widely used by doctors to check people’s balance is named after him.

Dr Uri von Baumgarten, of Jonannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, West Germany, told a press conference at Houston’s Johnson Space Centre that the same test performed on four astronauts in the space shuttle gave results which were exactly the opposite of those predicted by the theory. He said that while the Barany Test remains a valid diagnostic tool for doctors to evaluate a person’s vestibular (balance) system, scientists must now come up with a new theory to explain why it works. In the test, warm fluid is squirted in one ear and cold in the other, creating a perception of movement in the patient who moves his

eyes accordingly. Barany theorised that it was movement of the natural fluid of the inner ear caused by temperature changes — convection movements — that created the perception that the body was moving. On Earth, warm fluids tend to rise and cold fluids fall.

If that were correct, Dr von Baumgarten said, the test would not give the same results in space because temperature convection movements do not take place in the absence of gravity. But, he said, all four astronauts tested during the space shuttle mission reacted to the test as they did on Earth — with at least one showing a much greater response. This meant Barany’s convection explanation of how the test works was wrong, although the test was still completely valid, Dr von Baumgarten and his colleague, Dr Hans Scherer, said.

“We are absolutely convinced that the theory is disproved,” Dr von Baumgarten said.

His announcement was among the first concrete scientific results to have emerged from the experi-

mental work being done during the first flight of the European Space Agency’s Spacelab research laboratory aboard Columbia. Dr von Baumgarten’s experiment was one of several being conducted in Spacelab to investigate how the body adapts to the weightlessness of space flight. Almost half the people who have flown the roomy spaceliner have experienced a temporary malady similar to seasickness and American space officials are anxious to learn more about it since more and more people will be flying shuttles. This “Space Adaptation Syndrome” usually lasts for only two days and people seem to adjust to their new surroundings after that. “The vestibular system does not seem to be any handicap to long space missions but it is for short ones,” Dr von Baumgarten said.

While the National Aeronautics and Space Administration no longer gives reporters information about how orbiting astronauts adjust, it is known that at least some of the crew experienced the syndrome in the beginning of their flight.