ASTRONAUTS’ ILLNESS
USA: Astronauts returning to earth after spending time in space are frequently dizzy and nauseous. Also, those returning to gravity have trouble with atrophying muscles, depending on how long they’ve been gone. Astronaut Sunita Williams said re-entry was ‘painful’ and Peggy Whitson said the gravity force felt heavy, but she’s back at the space station again. Once back in gravity, blood puddles in the head and feet. Some astronauts faint. Also, inner-ear disorientation causes imbalance. This can cause commanders flying the shuttle to experience slowed reactions and ability to track moving objects. On the ground, astronauts say calf muscles are so unused to weight that they can have trouble walking. Result: people who regularly lifted weights before leaving were told not to go anywhere without having two people stand one on either side.

ASTRONOMY, A STAR LIKE OUR SUN
USA: Astronomers discovered a fifth planet orbiting 55 Cancri, a star 40 light years from our solar system. The star is ‘very much like our own sun’, says San Francisco State University astronomer Debra Fischer, and the planet is about the same distance from its sun as Earth is from ours and ‘would be a little warmer than the Earth,’ said Jonathan Lunine of University of Arizona. Not after global warming.

STEM CELLS, UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD
USA: The American Medical Association adopted new guidelines urging pregnant mothers to donate their babies’ umbilical cord blood to public cord-blood banks. The stem cells in cord blood can save lives—they’re the same stem cells that make up bone-marrow transplants that help many people survive certain cancers, but cord blood transplants easily into unrelated people. ‘Physicians should be prepared to discuss cord blood banking options with their patients during pregnancy,’ AMA board member William Dolan said.