Astrotoxicology

Abstract

After astrochemistry and astrobiology, astrotoxicology is a further subfield of astroscience. Astrotoxicology is an interdisciplinary science that combines physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, medicine and toxicology. Unlike toxicology on Earth, astrotoxicology in space must take into account the specific features of extreme conditions such as gravity, radiation, temperature or pressure and also consider the distinctions of extreme conditions on other celestial bodies. The field of action of astrotoxicology is, therefore, the influence of lower gravity on the toxicological characteristics of substances in the human body, the special dangers caused by increased radiation in space and on other planets and the special chemical changes caused by the extreme conditions in space on substances and the toxicological consequences associated with them. Despite growing space research, there are so far only a few pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic or toxicological investigations under conditions of microgravity and knowledge of toxicology under the extreme conditions in space in particular. Future studies will be the beginning of astrotoxicology, a previously unknown branch of toxicology.

Butter Sculpture: The History of an Unconventional Medium

“…In debates that led to the various pieces of legislation then and later, the dairy industry presented tales of oleomargarine's unsanitary production processes and its unsafe, unhealthy product. 52 A 1909 cartoon from the Creamery Journal indicates the tone of the ongoing campaign: a gladiator representing the dairy interests carries a shield of ''Consumer's Protection Purity'' to defend a family huddled in his shadow, while he confronts a cowering oleo figure backed by a dollar sign (fig. 16).…”