• Question: do our cells respond to gravity? if so how?

    Asked by millymolly to Peta, Natalia, Hayley, Daniel, Andrew on 17 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Cells have mass, so they do experience gravity. If you dropped a cell it would fall down.

      But they are very light, and in the body they are held in place by the other cells around them so gravity doesn’t have a big effect on the way they work.

      Gravity does have an effect on the human body as a whole though. I’ve heard that you’re taller first thing in the morning than at the end of the day – but this is just because your muscles tire and can’t hold you up as well.

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Yup, cells respond to gravity – astronauts experience this when they’re in space, their muscles can waste away and this is related to the lack of gravity the cells are experiencing, in some senses at least.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Yes they do. For a while they believed they didn’t but have since taken cells into space and found that growing cells need gravity to form properly. They also put cells into artificial gravity in space (by spinning them) and found that the do grow properly in artificial gravity…. all good stuff to know before deciding to move to mars i think 😀

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