5 April 2018
Thousands of baby worms will be sent into
space later this year to help a study into muscle loss in older people.
Scientists at the University of Exeter in
Devon say nematodes are being used because they have a similar muscle structure
to humans.
Astronauts lose about 40% of muscle mass
after 180 days while onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Researchers hope the research could help
people with conditions including muscular dystrophy and diabetes.
The worms - a nematode species called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) - will blast off in a rocket
from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on 29 November and travel 250 miles
(402km) to the ISS.
They are useful to scientists studying
long-term changes in human physiology because they suffer from muscle loss
under many of the same conditions that people do.
Colleen Deane, a researcher at the University
of Exeter, said muscles weakened in space due to a lack of gravity.
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