Abstract
For centuries, mankind has struggled to understand the profound complexity governing the principles of life and the universe. This quest has taken him on scientific journeys far and wide: from the exquisitely simple atomic structure of our DNA to the hellish and chaotic depths of our sun, the energy source for all life on Earth, and beyond. Scientific, artistic, and social discoveries are what drive us as humans, and what distinguish us from all other species with which we share this planet. One of the fundamental questions that still troubles us is how life began on this planet and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe. This deep desire to understand and search for life has taken humans on exploratory journeys to the extremes of our planet: from the depths of our oceans to the heights of our mountains, and from the cold of Antarctica to the darkness of space.
The European Space Agency has supported the teaming up of international experts in “Topical Teams”. Topical Teams are open structures lead by European researchers which should address a scientific field in which gravity and access to space or planetary bodies constitute important cornerstones. The founding members of the Topical Team “Stress and Immunity”, as listed in alphabetical order as authors of this perlude, were significantly involved in the realization of this book, contributed to it and authored this chapter as a group.
This prelude was supported also by Alex P. Salam.
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The topics addressed in this prelude will be presented also in the parts II to VI of this volume. In addition, the following sources have been used to compile this prelude:
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Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the funding of this Topical Team by the European Space Agency (ESA) and express their thanks to Dr. Oliver Anger (ESA) for his support. The funding of the authors by national space agencies or other national or international funding institutions is acknowledged and specified in more detail in the authors’ individual chapters
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Baatout, S. et al. (2012). Space Travel: An Integrative View from the Scientists of the Topical Team “Stress and Immunity”. In: Chouker, A. (eds) Stress Challenges and Immunity in Space. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22272-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22272-6_2
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