Researchers from Louisiana Tech University will be floating above the Gulf of Mexico this month...literally. They'll be conducting zero-gravity testing of an experimental DNA analysis instrument developed at Tech that could benefit future NASA astronauts. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Niel Crews, and Collin Tranter -- a graduate student with the Institute for Micromanufacturing -- say the instrument could be used to monitor the health of astronauts exposed to cosmic radiation beyond earth's protective atmosphere. The Tech researchers will subject themselves to extreme conditions in order to conduct sensitive testing of the miniature device. Those tests will take place on a NASA airplane operating out of Ellington Field at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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