Word: skin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With the cables in place, Solovyev joined Vinogradov inside the lab, and the crewmen began their next chore, looking for breaches in Spektr's skin caused by the collision. The cosmonauts had originally been ordered not to turn the place upside down hunting for holes but rather just to scan for what NASA called blue sky showing through the walls. With the work going so well, however, controllers approved a more thorough search, and Vinogradov and Solovyev went so far as to disassemble Foale's stationary bicycle in order to create maneuvering room. "Michael," Solovyev joshed, "your riding days...
...comparatively rich southern provinces, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of the truth. There is still something to eat, but barely enough to sustain life for long. Severely malnourished children sit listlessly in nurseries and schools, their bodies stunted, their arms like twigs, folds of skin hanging from rib cages, eyes vacant and staring with hunger. Orphanages are filling up with children whose families can no longer feed them; unwanted newborns never leave the hospital of their birth. The little ones are dangerously vulnerable to diarrhea, pneumonia, measles. Sometimes elderly women collapse, exhausted, by the roadside. Many...
Even if all this succeeds, Spektr can't be used until the cosmonauts patch up the damage to its skin. On Sept. 3 Solovyev and Vinogradov are booked for a second walk--this one outside Mir--during which they'll crawl around the module looking for any punctures, which they hope to seal with rubbery "hermetic patches." Spektr can then be repressurized...
Beyond that, sharks have immense practical value. While shark cartilage does not, despite the claims, prevent cancer, it has been used to make artificial skin for burn victims. Shark corneas have been used experimentally for human transplants. Shark blood contains anticlotting agents. Shark-liver oil seems to aid white-blood-cell production; it is also an active ingredient in, of all things, Preparation...
...Sharks also have a primitive but highly active immune system, which may play a role. Their resistance to cancer, however, has nothing to do with their cartilage, despite extravagant claims by people who peddle shark-cartilage pills. While the cartilage has proved promising as an ingredient in temporary artificial skin for burn patients, no proof whatever exists that it can prevent tumors in humans...