I dropped this article in on a related discussion over at the bygone RDF forum but it never seemed to catch anyone's attention so I thought I might try a dedicated thread...

The article in question is

The fetus cannot exercise like an astronaut: gravity loading is necessary for the physiological development during second half of pregnancy
Medical Hypotheses, Volume 64, Issue 2, Pages 221-228
S.Sekulić, D.Lukač, N.Naumović

and the abstract can be found for example here:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve ... 7704004888

The linked article originally came to my attention on a different forum but the person who posted it apparently didn't like my tone as he stopped talking to when I tried to get him to tell me about the study in more detail, like for example how the hypotheses/theory has been empirically tested.

Obviously I'd like to read this for myself but it's apparently not readily available for free on teh Interwebz so I'll settle for opionions and insights on it if anyone has any.

pdf available. PM me with email.

I watched a video on the net which showed dog a fetus developing . (On a ITV program link I think.) As the commentary eluded, the movement of limbs at such a young development stage were more to do with establishing neural pathways between brain and limbs. The dog was practicing to run and getting better at it before having to deal with gravity as well after being born.

If you are a college student you will have access to this article through sciencedirect. If you aren't a college student, just message me with an Email and I can help you out. I don't think this medium has the ability to attach files(or at least I can't find a way to).

eversbane wrote:pdf available. PM me with email.

Thanks, I'll PM you presently...