Saturday, March 5, 2016

Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever’

Chang, Kenneth. "Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever’." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.

The article that I read, Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever,’ discusses the recent return of Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut who spent 340 days in space. For the most part, the article was speaking about the differences that occur to the human body when in space versus when the astronauts are on Earth. Some of these changes are increased height and the flattening of the eyeball because of increased pressure of fluid from the lower part of the body floats up towards the head as a result of no gravity. NASA is working to study these changes throughout their missions and Scott Kelly is one of the contestants for the testing. Some of the ideas that NASA scientists are trying to prove is the idea that space changes the human body in ways we would have no imagined. Scott Kelly is being genetically compared to his twin brother in order to see the genetic differences that space can cause. So far, it has been found that the genetic changes were faster in Scott than in Mark. John Charles, an associate manager for NASA’s human research program said, “By looking at Mark’s results collected over the course of the year, we can see what the normal variations might be. Those will tell us what areas to investigate in the future.
This article is very important to the scientific world because of its understanding or goal to understanding the human body and the changes that occur to it in space.With technology becoming more advanced, the knowledge and ingenuity of science is changing and expanding in many different directions very quickly. These types of studies are beneficial because they can help the medical and scientific field to understand what changes occur in space, whether or not they are dangerous to humans, and if people were to potentially live in space, what would needed to be created to avoid these dangerous space effects. Knowing and understanding how this works allows us to be one step closer to grasping and possibly having humans live in an area outside of Earth.  
In my opinion, I feel that this article was written very well. The author gave a great summary of the Scott Kelly’s background and gave details about the genetic changes between Mr. Kelly and his brother Mark. There was no time in which I was confused content-wise, nor was it repetitive or wordy. For this reason, I believe that the author was very clear and concise in his research and writing. Also, because there were some quotes that were included from experts on the subject from NASA, it allowed me to be comfortable and trust the information that was presented in the article. Overall, the author seemed to know a lot about what he was talking about, definitely a sign of a good writer.

6 comments:

  1. I read Hadley’s review on the article “Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever’”. She did a good job of including details about Kelly’s increased height and flattened eyeballs due to increased pressure and living in space for so long. The eyeball is flattened due to fluid from one’s lower body, rising, due to no gravity. She also did a good job of including a quote by John Charles, an associate manager for NASA’s human research program. He stated, “By looking at Mark’s results collected over the course of the year, we can see what the normal variations might be. Those will tell us what areas to investigate in the future.” This enhances the validity of the article and review. Lastly, she did a great job at addressing how this article was important to society because scientists can study how the human body responds to living in space and if living in space is possible for future generations.
    Although Hadley did a great job, there were a few aspects that could have been stronger. First, there was no hyperlink and there were some spelling error, mistakes that could have easily been fixed if the review was read over again. Secondly, there were not many details about Kelly’s time in space and how he was affected maybe emotionally due to the fact the title said that he felt like his time in space “felt like forever”.
    This article was very important because it addresses a major breakthrough in the field of science and astronomy. Scientists can finally see what effects come from many months spent in space and if living in space is possible for the future. Scientists can also come up with prevention methods to address the flattening of the eyeball or other disastrous effects that living in space has on the human body. Overall, this review was very informative and interesting and slightly relates even to pop culture and movies like The Martian.

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  2. Hadley,
    "Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever’ certainly was an interesting piece to read. It was thought-provoking to think outside of realm of the average person’s conception of space. Normally thinking of space we think of the discoveries of new planets, essentially exploration. However, your article touched base on a topic we don’t normally dwell on. The effects of space on the explorers themselves who are conducting these explorations. A good thing about your article include the example that you referenced about the eye which displayed the effect of space on the human body. Another good component about your article was how you drew from experts and you nicely weaved a quote into your piece enhancing your concise summary.

    Despite enjoying your review, there were a few slight mistakes with it. One improvement just to do a quick scan for spelling mistakes like how the word “not” should have been “no”. Another improvement would be expanding about the effects space has on the body. Although you mentioned that the article focused on the different effects of space on the body, you didn’t really mention many of them. Mainly we learned only that Scott appears to age faster than his twin brother on Earth and that the eye undergoes flattening due to increased pressure. You provided one specific example and one broad example. Overall, good review and great article choice.

    I primarily chose this article because I actually heard of the news of Scott Kelly being launched into space about a year ago and how his twin brother would remain in the U.S. in physics class last year. It was nice hearing a piece about space based on this specific astronaut. The importance of this article is that it gives us a greater understanding of space and how exactly it can affect us and possibly how it would aid our discovery for finding other organisms in these different planets.


    Chang, Kenneth. "Scott Kelly Says a Year in Orbit Felt Like ‘Forever’." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Mar. 2016.

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  3. I thought that Hadley did a great job of reviewing her article. In a well-written and concise manner, she described clearly the differences that Scott Kelly, an astronaut who spent a year in space, discussed after his return; these include changes in the shape of the eyeball and genetic changes. Hadley also described how NASA will use these observations to inform the organization’s studies about space in later missions, and showed the reader how important these discoveries are to the scientific world. Hadley also voiced her opinion on the subject, which helped me understand why she chose the article that she did.
    I think that Hadley could have included some of the reasons why NASA was so interested in space travel and the effects on the body in the first place, because that would help us understand the real purpose of this mission and how it would impact future missions. I also wish that she would have described the author’s style in article a little more clearly; the says that she thinks the writing is clear and concise and there is no repetition, but I would have liked to have known how accurately the author captured Kelly’s experience — this could be done using more quotes.
    Overall, I think that Hadley did a great job with this article. I have read articles about Scott Kelly in the past, but none of the ones that I have read captured the purpose of the mission and the information taken from it in the way that this article does. I look forward to learning more about the impact that this mission has on future space travel.

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  4. Hadley delivered her summary in such a way that the reader could comprehend what she was saying as they would if she were talking in everyday life. That is, she was thorough in making sure that her audience understood what her article talked about. The summary also included a variety of details, all of which were important, including the genetic differences between the twin brothers, how long Kelly was in space for, and how the human body has been affected after being in space for a while (such as increased height). She made an insightful criticism in her third paragraph as well when she observed that the “author was clear and concise in research and writing.”
    There really wasn’t much to fix with this report. I probably would have added in her relevance paragraph some differences about how the body could give us clues to new types of medicine--for example, how would several changes from space affect the body as a whole? Also, as much as I loved the connections to what the findings mean for life in space, it would have been even more interesting to read about how they impact humans on the planet today.
    Hadley’s article is so recent and therefore prevalent. Whoever spends 340 days in space must be talked about so that we can understand what’s really out there and where we really are. I also found the flattening of the eyeball due to elongation of the body and a lack of gravity rather intriguing.

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  5. I thought that Hadley did a great job of reviewing her article. Your article touched base on a topic we don’t normally dwell on: The effects of space on the explorers themselves who are conducting these explorations. In addition, you described how NASA will use these observations to inform the organization’s studies about space in later missions, and showed the reader how important these discoveries are to the scientific world. Lastly, she did a great job at addressing how this article was important to society because scientists can study how the human body responds to living in space and if living in space is possible for future generations.
    In terms of how you could have improved your review, one improvement would be to just do a quick scan for spelling mistakes, as there were some in your review and they can easily be avoided. Also, I feel that you could have included more quotes from Scott Kelly himself, rather than anecdotes from the writer of the article.
    I chose to read this article for this current event because the story presented has been all over the news and I was curious to learn more about it.

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  6. I think Hadley did an excellent job reviewing this article, and I enjoyed many aspects of it. Specifically, I think she did very well in keeping the review concise and getting right to the point. This made the review so much better because it did not include much useless information that could potentially bore the reader. Another thing I enjoyed about this review was how well Hadley gave background information about Scott Kelly and his journey. One final thing I enjoyed about this review was how well she addressed how this article is relevant, that it provides information for scientists regarding the effect of living in space on humans, and whether living in space is a possible option for the future.
    Although this was a great review, I feel that there are a couple of things that could be improved upon. One thing that I think would make this review even better would be if maybe Hadley went into a little more depth explaining more of the actual effects of living in space, more than just change in height and flattening of the eyeball. Another thing that would’ve been nice is if maybe Hadley corrected some minor typos and other things of that sort, such as misspellings and the absence of a hyperlink.
    Finally, I found this very intriguing because it is a very prevalent topic in society today, whether living in space is possible and the effects of it. This article explained the research done and what the scientists can use to further their studies on this topic of living in space.

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