In Space No One Can Hear You Wrinkle

Space fantasy: the women of Star Trek (marysue.com image)

Engine whooshes in airless space, transporter beams, and faster-than-light speeds aren't the only scientifically questionable features of Star Trek episodes; a crew that is supermodel-beautiful is just as impossible.

Over the past 20 years some astronauts have reported "deleterious effects" (lesions, thinning, loss of elasticity) on their skin. An examination of six mice who spent 91 days on the International Space Station suggests that the cause may be more than space capsule air:

The astromice suffered profound changes to their skin during their sojourn. The team found that the skin of the astro-mice was 15% thinner than that of their grounded counterparts.....The more that researchers look for detrimental physiological changes in animals and humans that have been to space, the more they seem to find.

Too much sunlight on the earth's surface ages the skin. In space the sun's radiation is over a thousand times more powerful. As they say, do the math.