physiological effects of a gravity >1

I was curious as to whether or not anyone knew what the physiological effects of a gravity greater that 1 would have on a creature. If increased gradually, could the creature (organism of any kind) adapt and thrive? Or is there a limit to the amount of gravity an organism can stand before it dies? Being that increasing the gravity on earth is currently impossible, I am also curious as to whether NASA has conducted any experiments on organisms using an artificial gravity (centrifugal force) in space. Anyone who has any answers please post.

-THANKS

 

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It's my understanding that a gravity greater than 1, even if applied gradually, will eventually cause the heart muscle to seize under the strain, let alone pull the contents of your bowels out through any available orifice. I am assuming you mean to increase the gravity in whole numbers.

I don't believe that NASA has any available facilities to test centrifugal force in a zero-G environment. You might want to ask at NASA's website. Linda Porter handles the letters there, and she's pretty helpful if you keep it intelligent and to the point.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast05nov99_2.htm will take you to their newsletter. You can find a way to contact them there.

 

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What about gravity applied at values less than whole numbers? Say perhaps living at 1.1g for a year then increased to 1.2 and so on. Would this be possible? And thank you for the link to NASA, I pla on emailing them very soon.

-ANTON

 

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There would come a point at which the body would not be able to take the strain. However, if such changes were imposed over a generational scale, you'd be using forced evolution as each successive generation adapted genetically to the new environment. Other physiological changes would arise besides a stronger heart. The new generations, in theory, would be shorter, squatter, and probably stronger.

There is, however, a chain of thought that believes that the overall appearance of the life form would not change. The appearance is determined not so much by gravity's effect on the overall body but rather on the smaller scale of DNA. The idea is that if a certain creature is genetically predisposed to be 3 feet tall, the only way it would change would be if it was necessary for survival, not comfort.

 

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