The spontaneous streaming of air around surfaces of warm bodies conditioned by gravitation is missing in the weightless condition. This implies a change in the thickness of the surface air layer and its interference with the heat output of an organism. The paper describes the use of an electric dynamic katathermometer (EDK) for automatic and continuous scanning of heat output and presents results of measuring basic characteristics of the surface layer under defined laboratory conditions, and their relation to heat output.

Institute of Biophysics Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Brno Czechoslovakia