Slashdot Mirror
Live Worms Found in Columbia Wreckage
Scoria writes "CNN is reporting that hundreds of live worms, fourth or fifth generation descendents of the subjects of a scientific experiment conducted aboard Columbia, have been discovered amongst the shuttle wreckage. The worms,
C. elegans ,
share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Hundreds of worms from a science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been found alive in the wreckage, NASA said Wednesday.
The worms, known as C. elegans, were found in debris in Texas several weeks ago. Technicians sorting through the debris at Kennedy Space Center in Florida didn't open the containers of worms and dead moss cells until this week.
All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on February 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.
"To my knowledge, these are the only live experiments that have been located and identified," said Bruce Buckingham, a NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center.
The worms and moss were in the same nine-pound locker located in the mid-deck of the space shuttle. The worms were placed in six canisters, each holding eight petri dishes.
The worms, which are about the size of the tip of a pencil, were part of an experiment testing a new synthetic nutrient solution. The worms, which have a life cycle of between seven and 10 days, were four or five generations removed from the original worms placed on Columbia in January.
The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans. In 1999, C. elegans became the first multicellular organism to have the sequencing of its genome completed.
C. elegans have two sexes: males and hermaphrodites, which are females that produce sperm. A hermaphrodite worm can self-fertilize for the first 300 or so eggs but later usually prefers to accept sperm from males to produce a larger number of offspring.
The experiment was put together by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.
The moss, known as Ceratodon, was used to study how gravity affects cell organization. During Columbia's flight, shuttle commander Rick Husband sprayed the moss with a chemical that destroyed protein fiber. He also sprayed the moss with formaldehyde to preserve it. Seven of the eight aluminum canisters holding the moss were recovered.
Why worms?
The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans.
The experiment was put together by an Ames Research Center researcher and Dr. Fred Sack at Ohio State University.
"The cells were surprisingly well-preserved, but we're analyzing how useful it's going to be," Sack said.
NASA officials said they don't know if the worms will still have any scientific value since they were supposed to have been examined and unloaded from Columbia within hours of landing
"It's pretty astonishing to get the possibility of data after all that has happened," Sack said. "We never expected it. We expected a molten mass."
Go here for more info (genetic) and a pic of them
The C. Elegans genome may be browsed here...
It's 11pm, do you know what your deamons are up to?
C. elegans belongs to the phylum of nematodes.
Funnily, nematodes are called "sukkulamadot" in Finnish, which translates to "shuttle worms" in English.
Nobody else seems to be surprised that the worms are still alive. I hope NASA will try to understnad what kept them alive, the locker or the worm anatomy ?
;-).
This coul dend up with major consequences on space, and air travel safety (I'll ask for a locker myself next time I take the plane
Don't laugh, there is ongoing research and inovation and airplane safety, like the built-in parachute on the cirrus.
Ok...
Would this also mean if you got infected with a weird viurus or "worm" you could sue?
Ok, you cannot be infected by C. elegans. They are not parasitic.
Think of how terrible it would have (or was) if they had biotoxins on board the shuttle?
Yeah, that would suck. Although it would probably either burn up upon re-entry or make it to earth safe in it's really good seal (as happened with these worms). Sure, once the box hit the ground it might break open...anyways
Does anyone know if these "similar to human" worms are harmful to humans?
Unless you were to swallow one and choke, these worms are not harmful to humans at all.
What makes them similar to humans anyway?
They share some genetic features. Some scientific stuff that no one cares about but scientists. C. elegans are similar to humans in the same way D. melanogaster (fruit flies) are similar to humans. Genetic and developmental regulators.
Does radiation and antigravity make such creatures mutate?
Radiation does cause things to mutate (although generally not in the grow an extra arm fashion). Antigravity does not. I don't think that these worms would have been to exposed to much greater radiation being in a space ship in space because the astronauts are not mutated upon returning home either.
What if these worms were carrying some sort of bacteria in their digestive system like tape worms and mosquitos do that are bredding grounds for new super viruses like SARS and illness like Malaria???
They were carrying bacteria in their digestive system, all organisms do. However, these bacteria would be particular to worms and not humans. And, see the previous argument on radiation. You have more to fear from the astronauts having mutant bacteria than the worms.
To some degree, this is a serious question, so I'll give it a serious answer: C. elegans serves as a useful model of development in multicellular animals (like us) because it's about the most primitive animal that still has basic systems like a nervous system, a digestive system, etc. It's also very tough (as this incident proves), reproduces quickly, and is easy to tinker with in the lab. IIRC, it was the first animal to have its genome completely sequenced.
It also shows the capacity for rudimentary learning, making it of great interest to neuroscientist, since it's a lot easier to study the ~300 neurons in a typical C. elegans than the rather larger number found in more compex organisms.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Not only is the genome mapped out, but C. elegans has been a model organism for development. A complete flow-chart-esque understanding of the division of the first egg cell down to the last of its 959 cells. Its one of the first model organisms for a complete body-plan understanding of genetic development, but knowing the genes and figuring out the genes are 2 differant matters. Hence the experiments in space trying to understand how 0 g and amazingly controled environments affect gene expression.
Seeing as the Columbia Mission was the first *pure science* mission not having to do with Space Station construction in 2 years, I think its a great legacy for those who lost their lives that some really amazing science can come out of their work.
...because the shuttle becomes hot the astronauts have to be X-Men...
No. The astronauts would have become the Fantastic Four (plus) because the gamma radiation is what caused the shuttle to break up.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Hmmm... *clicks the CNN link*
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP)
Nope. Not at all.
Perhaps I'm feeding a troll here, but since you're logged in I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
The Associated Press (AP), to quote Yahoo! Finance (who, I'm sure, is in turn just quoting a press release), "the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization, providing news content in text, audio, video, graphics and photos to more than 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of 1 billion people worldwide... [and to] more than 120 nations."
News agencies pay for an AP news feed so that they can share the costs benefits of doing reporting. Rather than risk misquoting a story, most publications simply quote the AP feed more or less verbatim. Also, quite simply, why rewrite what you've already paid for? In paying for the AP (or Reuters, which is another news organization) news feed, it seems that they are allowed to copy the text which the industry has collectively paid AP to proofread.
It makes more economic sense than to use text that you already trust to be accurate and clear, rather than to pay someone to reword it.
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
Heh. Actually, I believe it comes from earlier meaning of the word 'shuttle' (Finnish 'sukkula') - a weaving instrument that goes back and forth, or a reasonable facsimile of thereof that does something similar. The translation of 'Space Shuttle' was kind of literal and the name stuck.
Not entirely true. Under ideal conditions the life cycle is egg-->L1 larva-->L2 larva-->L3 larva-->L4 larva--L5 adult but if conditions are not so good (overcrowding, lack of food etc.) Caenorhabditis can turn into something called a dauer larva which doesn't feed, doesn't move around much, and can survive for much longer.
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642