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From: kallis@pen.DEC
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Space Whoopee 
Message-ID: <3110@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 10:01:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3110
Posted: Mon Jul 15 10:01:28 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 06:24:07 EDT
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	The question of whether a woman or other mammal could conceive in
"zero g" is easily answered without having to make a "Rabbit Test": 
	1) Most human activities have been tested in negative gravity (e.g.,
	   you can eat and swallow upside down; drinking water upside down
	   has been a folk remedy for curing hiccups for more than a century).
	2) Spermatozoa swim to their target.
	3) Fetrilized eggs attach to the uterus without help from gravity.
	4) The developing zygote/embryo/fetus is in a sac of amniotic fluid
	   that effectively puts it in as "weightless" an environment as
	   astronauts-in-training do when skindiving.  The chemical exchange
	   across the placental link is not dependent upon gravity.

	It's possible that there might be complications, but I rather suspect
not.  Don't forget that humans come from a billions-year-old evolutionary
chain that goes back to "weightless" sea life, and there are a lot of
safeguards buolt in.

Steve Kallis, Jr.