Worms in space
NOV 30, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025736
BBC : A colony of Caenorhabditis elegans survived for six months aboard the International Space Station, produced 12 generations of offspring, and have now returned to Earth. The millimeter-long worms were the subjects of a study , by Nathaniel Szewczyk of the University of Nottingham and colleagues, on physiologic changes caused by low-Earth-orbit conditions. An automated chamber allowed for remote observation and kept the worms alive and healthy in a liquid environment without human intervention. Automated experimental systems like this one could be used in unmanned expeditions to study the effects of interplanetary travel on physiology, with the eventual goal of finding out whether human colonization of other planets is possible.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
