In life sciences, two physiology experiments study the cardiac system and two biology experiments investigate plant gravitaxis and cell and particle motion by ultra-sounds. In microgravity, conventional ECM is not possible on a free-floating patient. This new method is tested on a mannequin designed to simulate a human patient. This new discipline, 'Neurocardiology', combines the fields of neurosciences and cardiovascular physiology and is concerned with the variation of the basic heart rate and its modulation due to alterations in autonomic activity. On earth, without other stimuli, Euglena gracilis, a fresh water flagellate, orients itself upward in the water column.
Some theories claim that gravitaxis is exclusively based on passive buoyancy effects.
The experiment investigates possible physiological mechanisms in the gravitactic orientation, involving physico-chemical reactions inside the cells which contribute to the phenomenon of gravitaxis. The experiment manipulates and separates particles in suspension, such as biological cell cultures, by ultrasonic fields. This new method has considerable advantages in microgravity on classical separation methods based on filtration and centrifugation. Identifying the effect of gravity or its absence on the behaviour of particles, such as suspension cell cultures, allows optimization of the filter use for applications on earth. The experiment is a cooperative effort between the Universities of Nottingham and Cardiff and the Technical University of Vienna, and is supported by the EC TMR programme UltraSonoSep.