Joan VernikosJoan Vernikos, Ph.D., is a pioneering medical research scientist who has conducted seminal studies in space medicine, inactivity physiology, stress and healthy aging. In 1964 she began working as a researcher at the NASA Ames Research center, where se spearheaded groundbreaking medical studies on the effects of weightlessness. Vernikos served as Life Sciences Director at the NASA Ames Research Center from 1986 to 1993 and Director of the Life Sciences Division at NASA headquarters from 1993 to 2000. Vernikos is also a prolific journalist and science writer. She has written about space, defense and foreign affairs, medicine, health, stress, aging and physical fitness for numerous scientific, academic and popular publications, including Defense & Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Popular Science, Muscle and Fitness, and Gerontology. Vernikos has written four previous books: Inactivity: Physiological Effects (1987, co-written with Harold Sandler); The G-Connection: Harness Gravity and Reverse Aging (2004); Stress Fitness for Seniors (2009); and Sitting Kills, Moving Heals (2011). Read More Read Less