By Elizabeth Landau, CNN. Capt. Scott Kelly, a veteran astronaut, will set the record for the longest single space mission for an American, NASA announced Monday. Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will embark on a one-year mission to the International Space Station in 2015.
Do a personâs hair and fingernails continue to grow after death? Hair and fingernails may appear longer after death, but not because they are still growing. Instead, a persons fingernails and hair may appear longer because the skin around them has retracted, according to the Dermatology Clinic at UAMS. After death, dehydration causes the skin and other soft tissues to shrink.
Why do toenails thicken as we age but fingernails donât? A. With age, there is a rapid decrease in the growth rate for both toenails and fingernails, said Dr. Richard K. Scher, head of the nail section at Weill Cornell Medical College. As a result, both kinds of nail thicken, because of the piling up of nail cells, called onychocytes. Fingernails do not thicken as much, however, because the decrease in their rate of growth is much smaller. And fingernails tend to be filed and buffed much more, which thins them. Other factors that can affect the rate of thickening include long-term trauma and impaired circulation.