Liquid living worms survive space
About 4,000
worms boarded
space shuttle Discovery
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.
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.