💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 3608.gmi captured on 2021-12-05 at 23:47:19. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News
Worms have survived their first space mission in liquid form.
The result, published in a Royal Society journal, means worm colonies can be
established on space stations without the need for researchers to tend to them.
The animals are helping scientists understand the effects of weightlessness and
high radiation levels experienced in space.
Lessons learned could one day assist humans to explore the Solar System.
In 2001, Stephen Hawking is reported to have said: "I don't think the human
race will survive the next 1,000 years, unless we spread into space. There are
too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an
optimist. We will reach out to the stars."
But space is no easy amble. Humans must first learn to cheaply and safely
propel themselves into space regularly, and then, once there, must adapt to
high levels of radiation and to weightlessness.
In preparation for longer spaceflight, scientists have designed shields to
deflect harmful energetic particles, and continue to study the ill-effect of
weightlessness on astronauts.
The gravity studies have mostly focused on a group of muscles - broadly known
as anti-gravity muscles - that seem to deteriorate without the gravitational
pull of the Earth. However, there is some evidence for the weakening in all
muscles, including the hearts of astronauts.
Weightlessness not only sees animals use their muscles less, but causes changes
in the chemical reactions within the muscle cells, explained Nathaniel Szewczyk
from the University of Nottingham, who is the lead author on the new study in
the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Growth chamber (N. Szewczyk) An automated multi-generational growth chamber
will keep the worms healthy
Dr Szewczyk, and his team, looked at the effects of weightlessness on the
muscles of worms, because these multicellular animals share many genes with
humans, and can therefore help scientists gauge the long-term impacts of deep
spaceflight on human life.
The recent mission saw Dr Szewczyk's worms return to Earth with the space
shuttle Discovery. It was the longest time worms have survived and been
recovered, he said.
Liquid lunch
This was possible because the international team established an automated setup
for growing worms that transferred a subset of worms to fresh food every month,
filming the worms' progress as they went.
The technique was dependent on establishing that worms fare just as well in
liquid as they do on their usual agar plates.
He explains that "because we had the bad experience with shuttle STS-107, which
of course is the shuttle that broke up, we are keen [to] avoid being dependent
on getting the worms back."
This way, the researchers can gather data on the worms from space, and
automating the worm culturing also means less work.
Dr Szewczyk, like all UK scientists, is currently dependent on collaborating
with international space programmes to get their animals into space.
However, the UK is in the process of considering whether to join the European
Programme for Life and Physical Science (Elips), a European Space Agency-run
programme that would give British scientists more direct access to the space
station. The decision will be taken next year.