WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Bruce
Gulland and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses

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a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand no

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matter where in the world they live. It is twenty fifteen. A rocket

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ship stands upright in a large field. The technicians inside have made sure it

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is safe, and now a yellow
flame begins to glow underneath the rocket.

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The ship rises from the ground.
Inside, the astronauts prepare themselves for a

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difficult ride. The speed of the
rocket is pushing them back against their chairs

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so that they cannot move. Even
the skin on their faces gets pushed back.

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But soon the ship passes through the
Earth's atmosphere and finally into space.

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There is less gravity here, so
the astronauts begin to float off their seats.

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Only their seat belts hold them back. One of these astronauts is named

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Scott Kelly. Soon he and the
others will arrive at the International Space Station

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or ISS. They are bringing supplies
and they will help run the station.

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But Kelly's trip is special. Many
of the others will be at the station

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a few months, but Kelly will
be in space for an entire year.

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Today's spotlight is on Scott Kelly's year
in space and what that might mean for

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future space travel. Today, many
people have been to space, some have

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even lived there longer than Scott Kelly. Valeri Polyakov was a Russian cosmonaut.

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He stayed at the ISS for almost
fourteen months. But still scientists do not

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know much about what happens to a
person's body when they go to space.

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This is why Scott Kelly is so
important. He is an identical twin.

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Scott Kelly has a brother named Mark
Kelly. They look almost exactly alike.

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They are identical, but most importantly, they have the same genes. Scientists

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examined the twins before Scott went to
space. When he was in space,

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Scott sent the scientist's genetic samples,
and when he came back, they examined

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both twins again. They could then
com hair the results. They could compare

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scientifically what space did to Scott's body. Space is a very different environment than

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Earth, and human bodies are not
very used to it. Most of this

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has to do with the lack of
gravity. Living without gravity would be very

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strange for most of us. For
example, you cannot drink from a cup

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in space. Water will not stay
inside water floats in a ball in the

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open. Instead, you must drink
from a pouch or a straw. Using

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the toilet can also be a messy
business. People on the ISS have special

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machines to capture their waste, otherwise
it would float around and contaminate the environment.

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But living in space means more than
changing your environment. It actually changes

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a person's body. When Scott Kelly
entered the ISS, there was no gravity

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pushing down his spine, so his
spine got longer. In space, he

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was about three centimeters taller than on
Earth. He also did not have to

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use his muscles much. In space. You can float in one direction just

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by lightly kicking a wall, or
you can guide yourself with your hands.

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This sounds very fun, but it
also means muscles atrophy and lose their power

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to move. If a person were
to go from space to Earth, it

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would be very difficult for them to
move, So people living in space must

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exercise a lot. This also keeps
their bones strong and healthy. But other

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changes happened Scott Kelly that no one
had seen before. The way his genes

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worked changed. People's genes do not
change, but a person's environment can change

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what those genes do. Scientists call
this gene expression. If a person is

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in a very stressful environment, different
genes will express themselves. Scott Kelly was

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in a very strange environment, so
his genes started expressing themselves differently. Christopher

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Mason is a professor at wild Cornell
Medicine. He also helped study Scott and

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Mark. He spoke about the study
at a conference. As soon as Scott

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got into space, there was a
huge change in over one thousand genes that

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are changing a lot, so clear
the body and cells were adapting to this

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new environment of space. Few of
these changes hurt Scott Kelly. Some even

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made his immune system stronger. But
being in space for a year did have

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some negative effects. The shape of
his eyes changed, his vision got worse,

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his blood vessels became swollen. He
got greater risk of heart disease.

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Scott also encountered some radiation in space. This means he has a higher risk

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for cancer. After three hundred and
forty days, Scott Kelly returned to Earth,

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but even after he left space,
scientists continued studying him. Most of

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the changes did not last long.
Some of his DNA was damaged and he

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had a harder time thinking as quickly
as before, but several months afterward he

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reported feeling normal again. These results
are very important for future space travel.

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Not everyone's bodies will change like Scots. Space affects everyone differently. It even

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affects women differently than men. But
Scott Kelly's year in space will help predict

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things that might go wrong, and
it can help prevent these problems in the

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future. Some people want to go
even farther into space, maybe to distant

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planets or other solar systems, but
there may be some danger in going to

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space. It is difficult to understand
how the body might change even farther from

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Earth. People travel to other planets
would be in space even longer, and

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they would encounter a lot of radiation. But probably this will not stop the

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next generation of explorers. Space is
just too strange and what you might find

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there is too interesting. Scott Kelly
has retired from NASA, but he still

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wants to go to space. John
Logsdon is a historian. He studies the

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history of space travel. He spoke
to Scott Kelly in twenty eighteen about what

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it is like in space. Kelly
said space is the most joyous and magical

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place I could think of. Would
you go to space if you could?

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Why or why not? Do you
think people should travel into space? You

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can leave a comment on our website
at www dot Spotlight English dot com.

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You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The

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writer of this program was Dan Chrissman. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The

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voices you heard were from the United
Kingdom and the United States. All quotes

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were adapted for this program and voiced
by Spotlight. This program is called a

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Year in Space. Visit our website
to download our free official app for Android

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and Apple devices. We hope you
can join us again for the next Spotlight

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program. Goodbye one