So I want you to imagine something. You're about
250 miles above Earth, just floating in a vacuum.
And you're packing for the ultimate most intensely
hostile business trip imaginable, a trip to space.
The worst commute ever. Exactly. And you've got
your meticulously calculated rations, the specialized
pressure suit, all your communication gear. But
then, and this is where it gets scary, An emergency
happens. Oh boy. Yeah. You float over, you open
up this multi -million dollar medical kit. The
exact thing that is meant to keep you alive when
things go wrong up there. And looking at the
supplies, you suddenly realize this terrifying
oversight. Which is? That medical kit. It wasn't
actually designed with your specific biology
in mind at all. Yeah. I mean, that forces you
to confront a really unsettling reality because
you are completely isolated from your home planet.
And you're relying on these medical protocols
and equipment that's based on a physiological
baseline that just doesn't match your own body.
Terrifying. It is. For decades, the default assumption
in aerospace medicine was essentially a 1960s
male test pilot. Wow. Yeah, so if you didn't
fit that highly specific profile, the data simply
wasn't there. And that massive gap in our knowledge
is exactly what we are exploring in today's Deep
Dive. We are working from a really fascinating
set of sources today, specifically centered around
a Wikipedia article detailing the career of Dr.
Varsha Jain. And the mission of this Deep Dive
is to explore how pushing the absolute boundaries
of human survival in like the most extreme environments,
can actually solve everyday medical mysteries
for you right here on Earth. Which is such a
wild concept. We are looking at a fundamental
shift in how we understand human biology. And
it's being driven by someone who, essentially,
she looked at the existing medical establishment,
realized her specific interests just, well, they
didn't exist yet. And so she had to invent her
own medical specialty completely from the ground
up. I mean, whether you are fascinated by space
exploration or you're just curious about how
out -of -the -box medical breakthroughs happen,
this deep dive is going to totally change how
you view the human body's adaptability. Oh absolutely.
But to understand how someone pioneers a brand
new medical field, we have to start with how
their imagination was first captured. Right.
The origin story. Exactly. And for Dr. Jane,
it didn't start in some sterile laboratory. It
started in the Birmingham area, sitting in front
of the television watching Star Trek with her
brothers. I love that so much. It's just a great
origin story. She's watching this iconic sci
-fi universe, and she sees the character of Dr.
Beverly Crusher. the chief medical officer in
the enterprise. Exactly. She sees this fictional
doctor handling alien diseases, dealing with
like zero gravity trauma, and she is just completely
inspired to become a doctor herself. But she
realizes very early on that she didn't want to
be a normal physician. Like the standard everyday
terrestrial clinic just wasn't calling to her.
Right. The cosmos was. Which is a pretty bold
realization for a young student. Because, I mean,
there isn't exactly a standard career fair booth
for Starship Medical Officer. Yeah, you can't
exactly major in Starfleet. Right. But she found
a real world anchor for that sci -fi dream. So
in 2004, she attended the UK Space Biomedicine
Conference. and that event really cemented her
path. It made it real for her. Yeah, it showed
her that the fictional world she loved actually
had a rigorous, highly scientific counterpart
in the real world. Okay, let's unpack this. Because
her educational foundation feels like this brilliant
piece of reverse engineering. Oh, for sure. Think
about a standard medical path, right? Usually
you go to medical school, you learn standard
human anatomy, you become a standard doctor,
and then... maybe you decide to specialize in
how that anatomy reacts to an extreme environment,
like a high -altitude mountain or space. Yeah,
that's the traditional route. But she flipped
the script entirely. She actively used extreme
environments as the foundational blueprint for
her whole medical training. The timeline of her
degrees really illustrates that perfectly. In
2006, she graduated from University College London
with a Bachelor of Science focusing specifically
on medicine in extreme environments. Wow. And
she completed that specialized degree before
she even graduated with her actual core medical
degree from Imperial College London, which she
finished in 2008. So why does that specific order
matter so much? Like, does learning the extreme
stuff first actually change how you practice
basic medicine later on? It fundamentally changes
your cognitive approach. I mean, traditional
medical academia, it often creates this sort
of tunnel vision? How do you mean? Well, it teaches
you the rules of the body under normal earthbound
conditions. It assumes gravity and normal atmospheric
pressure are just constants. Right, things we
don't even think about. Exactly. But extreme
environmental medicine teaches you what happens
when you break literally all of those rules.
Does that make sense? Yeah. By starting there,
she built a multidisciplinary framework. She
learned to view the human body not as a static
machine that occasionally breaks down, but as
a highly adaptable system that is constantly
with its environment. So she is already primed
to look at environmental stressors as the actual
key to understanding biology. Exactly. And that
foundation naturally led her to the ultimate
extreme environment, which is NASA. During her
medical school training in 2007, she managed
to secure a seven -week opportunity to study
at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Which is a
huge deal. Oh. massive. But looking at the sources,
her initial focus there actually caught me off
guard. She worked with NASA's neuroscience research
team, specifically studying how first -time astronauts
recover their balance after they return from
space. Yeah, and that interest in the broader
kind of overarching systems of space medicine
continued for years. Fast forward to 2012, she
completed a master's degree in space physiology
and health at King's College London. Right. And
for her dissertation, she went right back to
the NASA Johnson Space Center. But this time,
she's working with the Exploration Medical Capability
Team. She's looking at in -flight diagnosis and
treatments, reviewing the efficiency of the medical
systems onboard the International Space Station,
the ISS. Yeah. Now, wait. Hold on. I have to
push back here for a second. OK, go for it. I'm
looking at her trajectory and her ultimate claim
to fame. The thing she is globally known for
today is women's health. Right. So why spend
so much time studying inner ear balance and the
efficiency of ISS medical kits? Isn't that a
massive detour from gynecology? If we connect
this to the bigger picture, you'll see it isn't
a detour at all. It is the absolute bedrock.
Really? Yeah. Think about what space actually
does to a human being. It strips away gravity,
and gravity is the single most fundamental constant
of human existence. Yeah. We just take it completely
for granted. Every single cell, every drop of
blood, every sensory organ in your body evolved
under the strict assumption that an invisible
force is pulling downward at all times. Right,
so when you remove that, I mean, the baseline
rules just stop applying. Everything goes haywire.
Take the balance study, for example. Your inner
ear uses these tiny structures in fluid that
rely entirely on gravity to tell your brain which
way is up. Oh, wow. So in zero gravity, those
structures just float randomly. Your brain starts
receiving absolute garbage data. You cannot begin
to understand highly specialized, localized,
health -like reproductive health without first
understanding how these baseline systems adapt.
That makes a lot of sense. You also mentioned
the ISS medical kit efficiency earlier. I imagine
standard medical procedures on Earth also rely
heavily on gravity without us even realizing
it. Oh, they absolutely do. Think about just
basic medical triage. On Earth, if someone is
gleading, the blood drips down. Right. If you
need to do chest compressions, your body weight
pushes down. In zero gravity, blood forms these
floating spheres that can actually be inhaled
by the crew. Oh my god, that's horrifying. It
is. And if you push on a patient's chest for
CPR, You just launch yourself backward across
the module. Because of physics. Every action
has an equal reaction. Exactly. Tools just float
away if they aren't tethered down. Dr. Jane had
to master the overarching architecture of space
medicine, the baseline neurology, the environmental
triage before she could safely drill down into
the specialized mechanics of gynecology. Okay,
so she's basically learning how the entire house
operates under extreme stress before she starts,
you know, inspecting the plumbing. That's a great
way to put it. And it seems like understanding
those overarching systems on the ISS made a glaring
gap in the research totally impossible for her.
to ignore because the astronaut demographic was
changing and the medical protocol simply hadn't
caught up. No they hadn't and this is where her
career pivots into truly uncharted territory.
In 2012 she was awarded an NIHR academic clinical
fellowship in the UK. Right. And the explicit
purpose of this fellowship was to focus purely
on women's health in space. So she officially
earns the title of space gynecologist. Yes. Which,
I mean, that has to be one of the most highly
specific academic titles in existence. It is
incredibly rare, but the sources highlight just
how desperately the specific expertise is needed.
Because the issues she consults on, they aren't
just abstract biological theories. They are the
gritty, day -to -day logistical realities of
human survival in a very hostile environment.
And here's where it gets really interesting.
Because the logistics are just staggering to
think about. Oh, yeah. Think about planning a
week -long camping trip here on Earth. Just packing
for that takes effort. You worry about the weather,
your food supply, how you're going to handle
the bathroom situations out in the woods. Right.
It's a headache. Now, try to imagine packing
for menstruation while living inside a floating
vacuum -sealed tin can that is hurtling around
the Earth at 17 ,000 miles per hour. where absolutely
everything floats. And that creates profound
mechanical challenges for the human body. Because
on Earth, menstruation relies at least partially
on gravity to help shed the uterine lining. Right,
of course. So in a microgravity environment,
you have to ask these questions that terrestrial
doctors never even have to consider. Like, does
the fluid flow out normally, or does the lack
of gravity cause it to just pool? Oh, wow. Yeah.
Is there a risk of retrograde menstruation where
the fluid actually flows backward into the fallopian
tubes? That sounds incredibly dangerous. Not
to mention the external hardware. Yeah. Dr. Jane
actually consults on how female astronauts deal
with space toilets, right? Because they use air
suction instead of gravity. Exactly. You have
to design systems that safely and hygienically
manage biological fluids when those fluids literally
want to form floating droplets. Yeah. It is a
massive engineering and medical crossover. It's
hugely complex. But beyond the day to day, she
is also looking at long -term cellular threats,
right? Sure. I saw a note in the sources about
deep space radiation. Yes. That is a critical
piece of her work. She calculates the radiation
risk to the eggs that astronauts carry in their
ovaries. And the mechanism behind why this matters
so much is fascinating. How so? Well, unlike
other cells in the body that constantly regenerate
over time, a woman is born with all the eggs
she will ever have. They just sit dormant in
the ovaries. And space is flooded with cosmic
radiation that our Earth's atmosphere normally
protects us from. Correct. As a spacecraft travels
through deep space, high -energy radiation particles
slice right through the hull and they pass straight
through the astronauts' bodies. They just go
right through the metal. Right through. And when
those particles hit cellular tissue, they can
damage DNA. Now, because eggs are a finite, non
-regenerating resource, the cumulative DNA damage
from radiation over a long mission poses a unique
severe risk to female reproductive health. It's
just wild to realize that these issues were largely
sidelined for so long. I know. But the urgency
to figure this out is really spiking right now,
because the face of space exploration is actively
changing. Both NASA and the European Space Agency,
the ESA, they are heavily increasing their recruitment
of female And the sources point out a very specific
biological timeline intersection that really
complicates all of this. For female astronauts,
the average age to have their first baby is between
38 and 41. Wow, that is such a narrow biologically
sensitive window. It is. You have these elite
professionals operating at the absolute peak
of their careers, deployed into the most physically
hostile environment known to humanity, exactly
during the years when reproductive health requires
the most nuanced to careful management, you simply
cannot rely on 1960s medical models to support
them. Which brings us to a major milestone. In
2020, Dr. Jane worked with a team of experts
for the ESA to create the first ever reproductive
health research agenda for any space agency.
And honestly, the fact that it took until 2020
to establish a formalized research agenda for
reproductive health in space really underscores
how overlooked this area was. Seriously. Dr.
Jane's work is practically forcing the aerospace
community to evaluate the biological reality
of half the human population. It is incredible
that she spearheaded that. But here is the turn
in the story that I find most compelling. Oh,
the Earth connection. Yes, solving these highly
specific problems for just a handful of elite
astronauts orbiting the planet unexpectedly holds
the key to solving everyday medical issues for
millions of women walking around right here on
Earth. This is the bridge between her space -based
theories and practical terrestrial medicine.
So in 2019, she won a Wellbeing of Women Clinical
Research Training Fellowship. And this grant
allowed her to move to Scotland to work as a
researcher at the University of Edinburgh. And
her earth -based research is incredibly specific.
The sources state she studies the endometrial
phenotype in women with abnormal uterine bleeding.
Yes. Now, can we pause and translate that? because
endometrial phenotype sounds a bit dense. Yeah,
let's break it down. The endometrium is simply
the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus.
It's the lining that thickens and sheds during
a menstrual cycle. Okay, got it. And a phenotype
refers to how cells actually behave and express
themselves based on their environment. So when
we talk about an endometrial phenotype, we're
basically looking at the observable characteristics
of that tissue. So she is looking at the cellular
behavior of the womb lining. to figure out the
fundamental mechanisms of why women suffer from
abnormally heavy periods. Yes, exactly. Heavy
menstrual bleeding is a debilitating issue for
millions of women on earth, and the root cellular
causes are often poorly understood. Dr. Jane
has this core driving belief that conducting
research on women's health in space directly
tangibly benefits our understanding of these
earthbound conditions. And the medical community
clearly agrees with her approach. In 2022, she
won the I .R. Early Career Innovator Prize for
this exact specific work. Which is fantastic
recognition. It is. But I have to ask, so what
does this all mean for you? I'm putting myself
in the shoes of someone listening to this, and
I have to question the efficiency of this entire
model. While sending humans to space, spending
billions of dollars in dealing with literal rocket
science, really the most practical way to figure
out why a woman in London or New York has heavy
periods. I get that. I mean, it sounds totally
counterintuitive to look at the stars to fix
a problem on the ground. But you have to view
space not just as a destination, but as the ultimate
biological stress test. How so? On Earth, Gravity
and the normal slow rhythm of our daily environment,
they act as a kind of static noise. And that
static noise actually masks the subtle microscopic
weaknesses in our cells. But when you launch
a human into zero gravity, you remove that static
noise completely. The biology basically panics.
It has to adapt at a staggering rate just to
survive. So it accelerates everything. Drastically.
Physiological changes that might take decades
to observe on where things like severe bone density
loss, cardiovascular shifts, or cellular changes
in reproductive tissue, they happen in a matter
of weeks or months in orbit. Wow. Space is a
hyperspeed laboratory. By studying how the endometrial
phenotype, how that uniring tissue reacts to
the extreme accelerated stress of zero gravity
and radiation, researchers can isolate the exact
cellular pathways that trigger heavy bleeding.
Pathways that are completely hidden. by the slow
gravitational baseline of Earth. Exactly. It's
kind of like trying to diagnose a subtle flaw
in a car engine. Like if you just drive the car
20 miles an hour down to the grocery store, the
engine seems totally fine. The low stress environment
masks the flaw. Right. To actually understand
where the mechanical failure is, you have to
take that car to a test track and push it all
the way to the red line. The extreme pressure
is what exposes the weak gasket. That is a perfect
way to conceptualize it. Zero gravity is the
red line for human biology. It exposes the hidden
cellular flaws that cause everyday suffering
down here on Earth. But pushing biology to the
red line comes with serious risks. I think it
is really worth noting Dr. Jane's own personal
stance on experiencing this extreme environment
herself. Yeah, that part is really telling. Because
the sources mentioned that when asked if she
would go to space, she said she would welcome
a short trip. But she explicitly noted that she
fears the physiological damage caused to those
who are in space for long periods of time. Which
is a remarkably candid admission from someone
in her position. Very much so. It really highlights
the dual nature of space exploration. It is simultaneously
our greatest laboratory for understanding human
health and one of the greatest threats to it.
It's sobering. I mean, the person who literally
defined the field of space gynecology, who understands
the biological toll on a cellular level better
than almost anyone alive, is saying, I'll go
for a quick visit, but I do not want to stay
there. Yeah. It really strips away the romanticism
of space travel and reminds you just how hostile
that environment actually is. Her hesitation
speaks volumes. It reinforces why her research
is so vital. We simply cannot send people into
that environment without understanding exactly
how it breaks the body down. It's a fascinating
paradox. We've covered some incredible ground
today. We started with a kid in the Birmingham
area watching Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek,
just dreaming of a medical career that didn't
yet exist. And then she went and built it. Exactly.
We followed her through this brilliant reverse
engineered education studying extreme environments
first, understanding the absolute baseline of
human balance and triage in zero gravity with
NASA. And from that really broad foundation,
she carved out a completely new discipline. She
became a space gynecologist. She created the
first reproductive health guidelines for space
agencies. And she took all of that cosmic data
back to the University of Edinburgh to solve
the grounded, painful reality of heavy periods
for women on Earth. It is a total masterclass
in multidisciplinary thinking. It proves that
innovation rarely comes from looking straight
at a problem. Sometimes you literally have to
look 250 miles straight up to see this. So true.
But as we wrap up this deep dive, there's one
final detail from the sources that I keep turning
over in my head. We just discussed Dr. Jane's
hesitation, her fear of the long -term physiological
damage caused by space exposure. Right, the cellular
radiation damage, the fluid shifts, the bone
density loss, all of it. Right. It raises a massive
question for the future. We hear tech CEOs and
space agencies constantly talking about colonizing
Mars. Well, all the time. The narrative is always
about humanity becoming a multi -planetary species.
But if long -term space exposure causes the kind
of severe, fundamental biological damage to reproductive
systems that even the resident space gynecologist
fears, what are the actual undiscussed biological
realities if humanity attempts to not just survive,
but actively reproduce and raise generations
on other worlds? It is the great blind spot in
the colonization conversation. We focus so heavily
on the rockets and the habitats. The hardware
might be ready for Mars, but the biological software
of the human body, particularly the reproductive
system, is still strictly tethered to the gravity
and atmosphere of Earth. It really makes you
look at our home planet a little differently.
So the next time you are packing your bags for
a trip and you toss in your little medical kit
with the band -aids and the pain relievers, take
a second to appreciate the invisible force of
gravity keeping you on the ground. It's doing
a lot of heavy lifting. Literally. Because as
we've learned today, the moment you leave it
behind, the rule book of your own biology has
to be entirely rewritten. Keep wondering, keep
questioning, and we'll catch you on the next
deep dive.