Force of Nature

The Biologist editor Sue Nelson takes a spin in a centrifuge to experience the effects of G-force on the human body

The Biologist Vol 61(1) p24-27

Blame it on a love of science – or a love of both Star Trek and Star Wars – but I've always wanted to be an astronaut. So when someone offered to send me to Jupiter, I was more than ready. I was born ready.

The interplanetary trip was in the form of the UK's only human centrifuge at QinetiQ in Farnborough. The machine is a horizontal metal gantry, pivoted in the centre, housed in a large circular room. At one end is a capsule, or gondola, resembling a small cable car...

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