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Going on a spacewalk might sound like a lot of fun – but in reality it’s no walk in the park. From their muscles getting less dense all the way to erectile dysfunction, astronauts have to put up with all sorts of things going wrong with their body. And none more gross than what happens to their fingernails. Turns out they just fall right off. The technical term for this is onycholysis, and it has to do with how much – or how little – atmospheric pressure there is in space. Because there is so little ambient pressure in space, astronaut’s space suits need to be pressurised to keep the human body intact. But that’s not good for the hands, it turns out. “Injuries to the hands are common among astronauts who train for extravehicular activity (EVA),” says a 2015 conference paper by space specialists Wyle Laboratories. “When the gloves are pressurized, they restrict movement and create pressure points during tasks, sometimes resulting in pain, muscle fatigue, abrasions, and occasionally more severe injuries such as onycholysis. “Glove injuries, both anecdotal and recorded, have been reported during EVA training and flight persistently through NASA's history regardless of mission or glove model." A 2010 study looked at 232 hand injuries sustained by astronauts, and found that the wider your knuckle joints, the more likely you are to suffer in a space suit. The study suggested that because space suit gloves limit the mobility of these knuckles, the fingers then get put under more pressure. This, in turn, means less blood gets to the fingers, and risks onycholysis. Ouch. Work has been done to try to improve the design of space suit gloves, of course. One team found that the more tailored they were to each astronaut’s finger length the less likely they were to lose their fingernails. That’s no mean feat, however. These gloves are made of at least four layers: one which touches the skin, one which helps create the pressurised environment, another one which makes the pressure layer less stiff, and an outer layer which protects the astronaut from everything on the outside. Mercifully for NASA astronauts at least, they usually have their gloves fitted to each wearer, and with new space suit design moving forward each day, the number of injuries is decreasing. Nonetheless, it sounds like a trip to space is no time for a manicure. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 28, 2023--

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We’ve all been told the story of what wiped out the dinosaurs – a giant meteor careers down from the sky, crashes into Earth and bang! The rest is history. But what if that wasn’t the whole story? A new study suggests there may have been more to it than just an asteroid – and it involves climate change. A chain of huge volcanic eruptions which eventually cooled the planet an alarming amount may have been partially to blame, according to research. The study, published in Science Advances and co-authored by Don Baker, a professor in McGill University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, suggests that this might be the case. The researchers looked into volcanic eruptions at the Deccan Traps, a huge, rugged plateau that formed when molten lava solidified and turned to rock. The plateau dates back to around 66-65m years ago, when magma from deep inside Earth erupted to the surface. That just so happens to be around the time when scientists think the dinosaurs met their demise. Baker’s team suggest that the eruptions produced a staggering 1m cubic kilometres of lava, which then turned into rock, which may have played a key role in cooling the global climate around 65m years ago. The scientists say it’s all to do with how much sulphur and fluorine was pumped into the atmosphere as a result of the eruptions. Incredibly, they found the event could have sparked a drop in temperature all around the world, dubbed a “volcanic winter”. Baker said: “Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades, prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs. “This instability would have made life difficult for all plants and animals and set the stage for the dinosaur extinction event. “Thus our work helps explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species.” The scientists worked it out using new chemical techniques developed at McGill to measure how much sulphur is in the rock formations which came about at the time, then from that, figuring out how much went into the atmosphere. The paper is titled “Recurring volcanic winters during the latest Cretaceous: Sulfur and fluorine budgets of Deccan Traps lavas.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The holidays are a time when travel, gift buying and family outings are abundant

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente says the national team are not at fault for the season-ending ACL injury sustained by Barcelona midfielder Gavi. The teenager is expected to miss at least seven months of action and Euro 2024 as a result.