Credit: SpaceX from Pexels Expose an animal to extreme physical stress, and the expectation is simple: It will break down. But when UC Riverside scientists subjected fruit flies to forces many times stronger than Earth's gravity—a condition called hypergravity—the insects did something unexpected. They survived. They even mated and reproduced. Their movements and behaviors changed dramatically and then, over time, they recovered. These findings, detailed in a new paper published in the Journal of Experimental Biology , point to a surprising resilience in how the body responds to high gravitational environments like those experienced by fighter pilots or by astronauts upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere. Even after more than six decades of human spaceflight, gaps persist in scientists' understanding of the effects of high-gravity environments on the body.…