Topic: mercury

Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham discuss astronaut training and future missions with European Space Agency reserve astronauts John McFall and Meganne Christian. The conversation includes plans for a private space-station mission and an Atlantic crossing in winter. Project scientist Geraint Jones explains the joint European–Japanese BepiColombo mission as it approaches Mercury.

The risks of in utero and early exposure to environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, on child neurodevelopment is now established, however our understanding of how these contaminants alter the human brain is very limited. To address this issue, more effort must be made to integrate brain imaging tools with epidemiological studies. In this seminar, I will be presenting EEG and MRI data collected in birth-cohort studies where impairments of cognitive and sensory functions were observed in association with prenatal exposure to mercury, lead, PCB or organ