RESEARCH that could one day help people to live longer will be explored by science enthusiasts in Knutsford next month.

They plan to debate recent studies that have focused on the long-term effects of zero gravity on the bones of astronauts.

Studies have shown that, on average, crewmembers lose as much bone mass in one month as an elderly woman loses in an entire year.

Next month Professor Mario Narici, who will be leading the discussion, will be explaining how that same research - into how bones become weaker - could reveal ways to reverse the process.

“The body is somehow noticing when there’s not as much stress on the bones,” said Dave Thompson who has organised the sciBAr discussion.

“In zero-gravity it starts to take that bone material away and use it for other things but something is triggering that process.

“We want to know what makes the body make that decision.”

Professor Narici, an expert on life spans who has worked at Manchester Metropolitan University for nine years, has been studying the physical effects of space travel.

After just a few weeks of weightlessness, astronauts’ bones become weaker. When they return to Earth they need physiotherapy to prevent their limbs fracturing.

Mr Thompson, 68, of Willow Green, Knutsford, said he had assumed that it would take much longer for a bone to become weak.

“It seems to start as soon as they get into space,” he said.

“The body is a complex place where it’s swapping materials from one place to another all the time.”

The experience of astronauts has been compared to elderly people who often begin to suffer from osteoporosis because they sit for long periods.

It is believed space travel simply speeds up the process because there is even less work for the skeleton to do.

“The body is always trying to do as little as possible,” said Mr Thompson. “If it can make do with less, it will.”

Professor Narici will lead the sciBAr debate at the Angel Hotel in King Street, Knutsford, from 6.30pm on December 1.

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