Worms slowly make their way Through dirt, above ground and into water. In fact, small animals are found in almost every habitat on earth, even in volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor. Now they too can win space.
In February, NASA sent thousands of worms into space. Their destination was the International Space Station (ISS). When they are warm to the astronauts already living there, the worm will flex their muscles as they go down the path of a small obstacle. This may seem like a futile experiment, but it has a critical purpose: to study how muscle mass occurs in astronauts.
What is new – On February 20, NASA sent the Northrop Grumman Cygnus Rizpley spacecraft to the ISS, loaded with 8,000 pounds worth of science cargo and other supplies for astronauts.
The cargo had a special package, which contained about 120,000 Canorhabitis Elegance Worm. A device was also built to measure the strength of their muscles in a microgravity environment. C. elegans Nematodes are a type, also known as roundworms. They are not in the same film as earthworms like annelids or split worms. Rather, they are ultra-animal models – one of the most studied creatures on the planet, and are considered analog species for more complex organisms, including humans.
Nathaniel Svezic is a researcher at Ohio University and a co-investigator behind the new experiment. They say that if researchers could gain control of what happens to these model organisms in space, it would open up exactly what is happening in the bodies of astronauts as well.
“If the molecules are effectively the same between worms and squirrels and humans, and the effects are basically the same, things should translate fairly quickly,” says Szezvic. Busy.
Why it’s important – Over the past 60 years, humans have had a near constant presence in space. With the Apollo mission, the astronauts set off for the moon. And for the past 20 years, moving astronauts, international crews have built a makeshift home on the ISS, an orbiting complex orbiting 254 miles above the Earth’s surface. Both private space companies and government-sponsored space agencies have built missions to send more and more people into space in the past decade.
A total of 240 people were on the ISS, some staying in space for only a few weeks or months, or, in the case of astronauts Peggy Whitson and Mark Kelly, for about a year at a time. As more humans go into space and return to Earth, their existence has changed how scientists understand the impact of space travel on the human body.
The effects of one more hassle are obvious Muscle mass damage In astronauts living in microgravity environments. But what causes the damage is a mystery – and so how to treat it, and prevent it from happening in the first place.
Digging Details – ISS astronauts do not need to use their bones and muscles to support their entire body mass in the same way that they do on Earth. Despite regular exercise in space and strict routine steps of a diet rich in nutrients, astronauts in a microgravity environment usually lose some of their bone and muscle mass.
Over the past few years, many studies have tried to fix what is happening to the bones and muscles of astronauts. This is especially compelling as humans begin to embark on long-distance space travel to distant places like Mars.
But when you think about muscle loss in humans, you don’t give it an exact compatibility with the small and thin creatures that live back and forth throughout life.
“Worms are tiny little creatures and it’s quite shocking that they also have muscles,” Sezwicz says.
“But that’s the thing. When you pause and think about it, you realize that both worms and humans need to move muscles from point A to point B, and surprisingly, a lot of bits within muscle cells are effectively identical. . ” He explains.
The case of one point is myosin – a protein that is also one of the central points of the experiment.
What’s next – Myosin is a major protein involved in muscle contraction, and it is present in both humans and worms. In turn, the worm is the ideal subject for this type of experiment.
To test muscle loss in a worm in space, the researchers behind the experiment created a small device called a nemaflex. The Nemaflex sounds like an old cassette recorder, but it’s really a small obstacle course, especially for worms.
On the ISS, the worms will be placed in the device and forced to hang their way through small, bendable pillars. As they move along the path of the barrier, a microscopic camera marrow will measure how many turns each pile takes, indicating the degree to which the worm in turn pushes the pile with its muscles.
“Physics is exactly the same as measuring human power because it’s for the strength of the worm – it’s just that you’ll need a teenage, small force plate,” says Szezvic.
After the initial test, after spending time in space, to measure any changes in their muscle mass, after the worms have remained in space for two to four weeks, many further experiments will be performed.
After they are flexing, the worm will return to Earth. Once on the ground, additional testing will result in a change in worm gene expression and muscle strength. Together, these experiments will give scientists a better understanding of how microgravity adapts to the environment.
Although some study worms may be skeptical about how much they can tell us about humans, Sezwicz says, at the molecular level, there is a strong relationship between the two organisms.
“But it’s also absolutely true that a lot of people think it’s a crazy thing,” Sezwicz says.
