How Lifestyle journy

Necessary to Support Modern Human Life.

By Nate Odenkirk and Olivia Pecini

“The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond.”—nasa, August 19, 2022

Even though we’ve searched the cosmos for decades, Earth remains the only planet that we know can sustain us. Possibly because we modern humans have very specific needs that are difficult to source in our universe. Here are some things that scientists look for when determining if a planet can support modern-day human life.

sustain us. Possibly because we modern humans have very specific needs that are difficult to source in our universe. Here are some things that scientists look for when determining if a planet can support modern-day human life.

Have we discovered bottled water on its surface?

Water is essential for life, but some of us absolutely will not drink filtered tap water from an ancient frozen lake.

An Evian water bottle in a crater.

Does the atmosphere have stable cell-phone reception?

A must. Real-world tests have shown that contemporary Homo sapiens without at least a 3G signal can survive for a few minutes at most. If a planet has reception, it may also contain traces of Wi-Fi.

Astronaut trying to get cellphone service in space.

Is the terrain even enough to drive on?

The adage “I can’t live without my car” is biologically sound and attributed to Charles Darwin. Luckily, most planets can support at least a few hatchbacks and drive-through restaurants. Parking can be a pain, though.

Light from a nearby star is critical, but apparently so is changing the clocks twice a year on our home appliances and whining about it.

Person in space resetting time on an appliance.

Can we bring dogs?

It’s not sustainable for humans if it’s not sustainable for dogs. Not sustainable for normal humans, anyway. Also, how cute would dogs be in little space helmets? Answer: very, and that’s a scientific fact, like thermodynamics.

Person and dog in space.

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IN DEPTH | MEDICINE

How modern life is transforming the human skeleton

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(Image credit: Alamy)

Each skeleton tells the story of its owner's life (Credit: Alamy)

By Zaria Gorvett

13th June 2019

From the emergence of a spiky growth at the back of some people’s skulls to the enigmatic finding that our elbows are getting narrower, our bones are changing in surprising ways

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It all started with a goat. The unfortunate animal was born in the Netherlands in the spring of 1939 – and his prospects did not look good. On the left side of his body, a bare patch of fur marked the spot where his front leg should have been. On the right, his front leg was so deformed, it was more of a stump with a hoof. Walking on all fours was going to be, let’s say, problematic.

But when he was three months old, the little goat was adopted by a veterinary institute and moved to a grassy field. There he quickly improvised his own peculiar style of getting around. Pushing his back feet forwards, he would draw himself up until he was standing half-upright on his hind legs, and jump. The end result was somewhere between the hop of a kangaroo and a hare, though presumably not quite as majestic.

Sadly the plucky goat was involved in an accident soon after his first birthday, and he died. But there was one final surprise lurking in his skeleton.

For centuries, scientists had thought that our bones were fixed – that they grow in a predictable way, according to instructions inherited from our parents. But when a Dutch anatomist investigated the goat’s skeleton, they found that he had begun to adapt. The bones in his hips and legs were thicker than you would expect, while the ones in his ankles had been stretched out. Finally his toes and hips were abnormally angled, to accommodate a more upright posture. The goat’s frame had started to look a lot like those of animals which hop.