NOTE TO EDITORS: News media and the public are invited to a talk about
NASA’s life sciences research and the International Space Station on May 11
at 2 p.m. at The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market Street, San Jose,
Calif. Admission to the talk, which will be in the museum’s Center for
Learning, is free with a paid admission to The Tech.

Bonnie Dalton, acting director of the Life Sciences Division at NASA Ames
Research Center, will discuss the International Space Station and NASA’s
life sciences research in space at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San
Jose, Calif. The talk will be Saturday, May 11, at 2 p.m. in the museum’s
Center for Learning.

In her presentation, titled ãSpace Station Past, Present, Future,ä Dalton
will talk about the early stages of the International Space Station (ISS),
with particular focus on the science activities on board. She also will
discuss NASA Amesâ contributions to life sciences research on the ISS, then
look ahead to the science activities planned over the next six years and
what ISS research means to people on Earth.

Dalton’s talk will be in conjunction with the new IMAX¨ movie “Space
Station 3D,” the first IMAX¨ 3-D movie made in space. NASA astronauts and
Russian cosmonauts shot the movie footage as they assembled the first
sections of the ISS some 220 miles above the Earth. By 2006, more than
100,000 individuals from 16 nations will have contributed their talents to
building the only orbiting research facility in existence and Ž]²¶ many
believe to be the greatest engineering feat since landing a man on the moon.

Scientists in NASA Amesâ Life Sciences Division study how the unique
environment of space affects living systems, from cells in culture to
physiological studies in animals and humans. A better understanding of
fundamental physiology will help improve human health on Earth and lead to
the development of countermeasures to the effects of long-term space
flight. The division also conducts ground-based life sciences research, and
implements flight experiments on the space shuttle, the ISS and a variety
of unpiloted international spacecraft. More information is available at:
http://lifesci.arc.nasa.gov/

The Space Station Biological Research Project at NASA Ames is providing
several pieces of hardware to support life sciences research on the ISS.
Its third suite of flight hardware, the Biomass Production System,
currently is supporting plant-growth research on the ISS. Details are
available at:
http://brp.arc.nasa.gov/

Life sciences research at NASA Ames is supported by NASA’s Office of
Biological and Physical Research, which promotes basic and applied research
to support human exploration of space and to take advantage of the space
environment as a laboratory. More information is available at:
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/

The Tech Museum is an educational resource designed to engage people of all
ages and backgrounds in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting
their lives, and to inspire young people to become innovators in developing
the technologies of the future. For more information, go to:
www.thetech.com