A relatively recent study featured in Nature suggested that the feet of people who habitually run barefoot strike the ground in a way that tempers impact and smoothes the running movement. Previous research suggests that people who run barefoot first land on the front or middle of their feet (“forefoot strike”), before they lower their heels and move their body weight to the backs of their feet before shifting forward again. Enter the spongey, springy running shoe in the 1970s, as in the picture on the left, and instantly runners were able to land on their heels before shifting forward (“heel strike”), thereby bypassing the forefoot strike. The introduction of running shoes profoundly changed running gaits. Daniel Lieberman, the first author of the article that appeared Nature and a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard University, said of heel-strike running, “the stiff landing hurts.” Read more at Lieberman’s Harvard webpage dedicated to barefoot running or in the journal Nature…
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If astronauts make it to mars, it’s looking like they’ll arrive feeling rather sick to their stomachs – and not due to “in flight” issues. NASA has been working on creating long-lasting processed foodstuffs, but unfortunately, what it’s serving up looks pretty revolting. Read more at ScienceNews…