Long distance space travel leaves you short, fat and ugly, claim scientists

I saw Disney/Pixar's Wall-E. I really liked it - it was a charming tale of a lonely robot who is destined to spend his life on the now evacuated earth, cleaning up the mess we humans have made. Enter EVE. Eve is a newer high-tech robot that is dropped off on earth by a giant spaceship and flutters around in search of life. And Wall-E experiences something humanlike - love.

However, I am not going to focus on that. I'm going to focus on how accurate Pixar seems to have gotten the presentation of humans after travelling in space for centuries. Short, fat and ugly. Well, I'm not going to say they were ugly. So, short and fat. If you saw the film, you'll recall that all of the hefty humans merely lounged on moving lounge chairs as they had forgotten how to walk.

Anyhoo, the Telegraph.co.uk has this article today written by Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent, which suggests that "Making long space journeys, like those envisaged in the future, will not be good for your looks or figure, claim scientists who believe they will leave astronauts looking short, fat and bald."

They believe living permanently in space for many years, perhaps even for many generations, adversely affects human's looks because they will not require any effort to move or keep warm. Near zero gravity would leave humans stunted and cause their bones and muscles to be underdeveloped, said astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell. They will also have bloated faces and lose their hair because fluid would pool in their skulls and there would be no need for insulation from the cold.

According to the article, Dr Dartnell, from University College London suggests, "With little effort required to move around in microgravity and an environment that is never too hot or cold, future spacemen and women are likely to become pretty chubby," and "Without gravity, fluid would float up to pool in the skull, which would cause the head to look permanently swollen out of proportion." He also maintains, "with no need for hair to insulate the head or eyelashes to flick dust from their eyes, future humans may become completely hairless."

After I read this article, I found another one that addresses an important fact not included in the telegraph article. Chris Matyszczyk reminds us in CNET's Technically Incorrect column that "On every future long-haul space flight there will be plastic surgeons ready to nip, tuck, and weave you back to beauty in a perfectly painless, weightless environment. Jowls too puffy? Let's pop that air out. Hair dropping out? Let's graft a little from your other regions."

Funny guy ... probably true!