Synonyms
Definition
The Biostack concept allows studying the biological effects of single heavy ions of cosmic rays. Each Biostack device is composed of a stack of visual track detectors (e.g., nuclear emulsions, cellulose nitrate, and polycarbonate) with layers of biological objects in resting state sandwiched between them. After exposure to the outer space, the track detectors are developed, the trajectory of each heavy ion is localized relative to the site of the biological object, and the physical data of each particle are correlated with the observed biological effects along its path.
History
The Biostack program has been developed in the late 1960s under the auspices of the Council of Europe within the Working Group on Space Biophysics and has been performed in international cooperation by scientists from Europe, Russia, and the USA. Biostack experiments were flown on the NASA missions Apollo 16 and 17 (1972), Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975), and the Long Duration...
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References and Further Reading
Bücker H (1975) BIOSTACK – a study of biological effects of HZE galactic cosmic radiation. In: Biomedical results of Apollo, NASA SP-368. NASA, Washington, DC, pp 343–354
Bücker H, Horneck G, Facius R, Reitz G, Schäfer M, Schott JU, Beaujean R, Enge W, Schopper E, Heinrich W, Beer J, Wiegel B, Pfohl R, Francois H, Portal G, Bonting SL, Graul EH, Rüther W, Kranz AR, Bork U, Koller-Lambert K, Kirchheim B, Starke ME, Planel H, Delpoux M (1984) Radiobiological advanced Biostack experiment. Science 22:222–224
Bücker H, Facius R, Horneck G, Reitz G, Graul EH, Berger H, Höffken H, Rüther W, Heinrich W, Beaujean R, Enge W (1986) Embryogenesis and organogenesis of Carausius morosus under spaceflight conditions. Adv Space Res 12(6):115–124
Facius R, Reitz G, Schäfer M (1994) Inactivation of individual Bacillus subtilis spores in dependence on their distance to single cosmic heavy ions. Adv Space Res 14(10):1027–1038
Horneck G (1992) Radiobiological experiments in space: a review. Nucl Tracks Radiat Meas 20:185–205
Horneck G (1994) HZE particle effects in space. Acta Astronaut 32:749–755
Horneck G, Baumstark-Khan C, Facius R (2006) Radiation biology. In: Clément G, Slenzka K (eds) Fundamentals of space biology. Kluwer/Springer, Heidelberg/Berlin/Dordrecht, pp 292–335
Swenberg CE, Horneck G, Stassinopoulos EG (eds) (1993) Biological effects and physics of solar and galactic cosmic radiation, Part A, vol 243A and B, NATO ASI series A: life sciences. Plenum, New York
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Horneck, G. (2014). Biostack. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_192-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_192-3
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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