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Spaceworms To Help Study Astronaut Muscle Loss
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that 4,000 microscopic worms were onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis when it launched today. Their mission: to help experts in human physiology understand more about what triggers the body to build and lose muscle. The worms are bound for the Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' on the International Space Station, where they will experience the same weightless conditions which can cause dramatic muscle loss, one of the major health concerns for astronauts. 'If we can identify what causes the body to react in certain ways in space we establish new pathways for research back on earth,' says Dr. Nathaniel Szewczyk."
Why don't we just give steroids to the astronauts, that should help them a bit with the muscle loss problem.
Am I the only one who feels like this is a bad idea? We all remember what happened to the ants...
I for one welcome our new medium sized giant spaceworm overlords!
Rather than having proper Snakes On A Plane, NASA investigated the concept, did a risk assessment, ran some simulations, modeled it, tested it in a swimming pool, and then decided that it was better to have Microscopic Worms On A Space Station.
I was going to make more jokes about Worms Armageddon, but I think I'm done. Hope they left their banana bombs in Florida.
I broke my right arm in a cycling accident on the 30th of july. The arm was pretty much immobilised for two months. To this day I still can't lift my right elbow above the level of my shoulder. The muscles in that arm are gone. Hard to think what shape I would be in if I spent six months on the ISS.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Ladies and gentlemen, we've just seen speaks for itself. The spacecraft has been take over, conquered if you will, by a master race of giant space worms. It is difficult to tell from this vantage point if the worms will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, the worms will soon be here. And, I for one welcome our worm overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I can help round up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
Nice seeing worms doing some good for a change.
We see this atrophy in hospital patients who are confined to bed for years in a coma. These patients never exercise their muscles, and they simply atrophy. Being in space is worse than being in bed. Lack of gravity means that your muscles are not constantly being exercised. Your muscles will waste away.
The fix for this problem is to use only astronauts who have a natural genetic mutation that causes muscles to be large, durable, and strong. A few Europeans do have this mutation.
Perhaps, Khan -- the character in Star Trek -- was right. A race of genetic supermen is best suited for space travel.
you know, worms and space suits do work in some weird ways, like shooting houses and carring pigs around.
"No they are not for experiments... a guy just gets hungry out there"
It seems likely to me that the worms will be subjected to various treatments ("test groups") to see if there is a way to reduce this muscle atrophy.
You seem confident that you know what the "fix" is, but without experimentation your suggestion is merely a hypothesis.
> I have had about a month of physiotherapy now
I don't think you should lose hope for at least another 11 months and probably more. I broke my wrist and its functionality improved for many months after I was free of the immobilization framework. Of course, it probably would be best if you continue doing physiotheraputic exercises even after the period which is usually believed to be the window of opportunity by conventional medicine (if your physiotherapy is anything like the one I got for my wrist, you have been given exercises to do by yourself). I don't have any problem with that, because I study aikido, so I get free "physiotherapy" for my wrist with every practice session.
I understand that my case is a bit different in that my problem was more joint flexibility rather than muscle strength, but I still think you are being premature. And of course, I wish you the best of luck with your recovery!
The astronauts should just lift weights.
And what about girls?
God's gift to chicks
DOOM! Doom I tell you! Have we learned nothing from watching Japanese television/movies? At least we know who to blame when Tokyo is in ruins!
2. They are not immobile on the ISS, they can exercise, and unlike you, they are not lazy.
That's (almost) no help. You have 2 types of skeletal muscles fibers.
One, Type II fibers (what's commonly named "red meat") is able to contract fast with great strength over short period of time.
That's what you use when you exercice or do efforts. It's used for impulse-type efforts.
The other Type I fibers (what's commonly named "white meat") is slower, less powerful, but can contract over long period of time.
You are continuously using them whole day long just to stay upright, against gravity.
By doing sport, you (preferably) build up type II fibers.
What melts in zero-G and what you need to recreate once back on the ground are type I fibers.
In short, to give an exaggerated image :
By making sports on the ISS you create astronautes who have the muscle mass of a Terminator-era Arnold Schwartzeneger, who could lift half a ton.
But can't stand upright more than 20 minutes.
Of course, I'm exaggerating. Endurance training (running on a fitness machine) has better effect on the gravity-dependent muscle mass. Nonetheless the current situation is not the most efficient.
3. I really don't see any benefit in this particular experiment, muscle atrophy is very well known, if you don't use it, you lose it. It's as simple as that, sure exercise on the ISS helps a bit, but without the constant gravity tugging on everything and straining the muscles 24/7, you're bound to begin to lose muscle density in 0 G.
First, it's not "as simple as that". See above.
In addition, in Science there's a certain difference between "We know it exists" and "Here is an exhaustive map of absolutely all chemicals involved in the whole process from begin to end".
(and then further difference with "here are a couple of drugs which can influence it and slow down the muscle melting").
From an ethical point of view, the advantage of the space-worms is that you can sacrifice them, and dissect-them and analyse all the proteins and other chemical they contain. (Whereas with human astronaut, you're ethically limited to blood samples).
The benefit is to have a better understanding of the minute details involved in muscle loss (as opposed to just know that it exist).
The hope is that, on the long term, such knowledge could bring benefits :
- Space Medecine : better treatments to help astronauts avoid losing muscle mass (current hGH is the only used one, according to a quick look-up in wikipedia).
- Surgery : better handling of patients with muscle atrophy due to long immobilising
- Degenerative disease : New clues for treating muscles degenerative disease
- Cosmetics : Instant budy building in a pill for Arnold "Terminator" Schwartzeneger wannabes.
- Military : Instant super soldier-in-a-pill
- (Illegal) sports : Even more doping.
Well, in short having more data about a problem is always useful.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
What if the worms escape and find the spider that NASA lost on the ISS last year? What if they mate behind the space-sofa? WHAT THEN?????
The astronaut goes to see the flight surgeon, who tells him he has worms, but not to worry. There is a 100% effective treatment.
Visit One: The surgeon shoves an apple, a pear, and a banana up the astronaut's ass.
Visit Two:The surgeon shoves an apple, a pear, and a banana up the astronaut's ass.
Visit Three: The surgeon shoves an apple and a pear up the astronaut's ass, then stands there holding the banana like a weapon. The worm sticks its head out of the astronaut's ass and says "Hey! Where's my banana?"
Whap! The surgeon knocks out the worm and pulls it out.
The Spacing Guild will be pleased.
These microscopic worms aren't travelling to the ISS on board the astronauts by any chance?
Hyper-competitive former fighter jocks + confined space + roids. Whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
Make sure there's only one female in the crew, and the problems will be clear enough.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I believe "spaceworms" is inaccurate. They are earth worms... "In spppaccee!!"
..used to keep jars of worms for "relief" when spending months on ships. This however may not have the same effect. Bleh.
Make sure there's only one female in the crew, and the problems will be clear enough.
She's a ruthless fighter jock too. If Eileen Collins was up there, she'd have all the men quacking in their boots before too long and install herself as queen bee.
This is my sig.
Whatever the pathways involved, say we discover some incredibly complex mechanism that regulates muscle mass; it still won't solve the basic problem. Being in free-fall or "zero g" for long enough causes involution of muscle and deteriorates bone strength. Now perhaps some pharmaceutical company can be persuaded to invest billions of dollars, one this pathway is discovered, to invent a drug that blocks it and thus lets astronaut keep their muscles. Then they will sell the pills to NASA and other space programs, at $1 million per pill.
Frankly wouldn't it be better to understand the relationship between gravity and muscle mass/bone density, and work on ways to simulate gravity instead? Methinks it would be far cheaper, AND resolve the situation.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
that was homer simpsons fault. Now he works for Brazil's power system.
Is everyone really going to let it slide that there's an ISS module called 'Kibo'?
The Nostradamus' of the 60's had already figured out the solution:
circular-shaped spacecrafts that rotates (for small crafts this might have to be 2,000,000 RPM but we're talking juiced up top guns here).
The Japanese are sending worms to Kibo in space? How long has Kibo been in space? When did that happen? And what the hell does he want with worms??
I swear, you miss one day around here - ONE DAY - and you're completely lost.
Remember when you had to go to Earth and eat brownies out of the sandbox to get worms?
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Whats your point?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I wonder how many 10's of billions of dollars have been spent studying muscle and bone atrophy in microgravity? Enough, I think, to launch a 1G rotating section on the space station so we never have to endure this silly discussion again.
an ill wind that blows no good
The normally stated reason why it is tricky to simulate gravity using a rotating space station is that the curvature causes the generated gravitational field to be inhomogeneous and that this generally results in nausea. Thus I'm wondering a few things:
a) Is it known what radius of circulation is needed to avoid this?
b) Is the primary problem that the artificial gravity points in different directions in points separated by a small distance, or is it that the magnitude of the field changes with distance from the center of rotation that makes it tricky?
I guess from a practical point of view you also have to deal with the problem of docking a shuttle with a rotating space station unless you want to start and stop the rotation before every docking. Stabilizing the motion may also be an issue, especially if the station itself is light as compared to the equipment and inhabitants that will be housed inside it.
OMG!! We've been bitchin' 'bout exposing Squirrel Monkeys to radiation.....now the Japanese want to send WORMS into space????
Please, will somebody think of the worms!!!! Never mind the children......
Worms are animals, aren't they?
Or at least why it would be less ethical than blood sampling. Do you know something I don't?
Given the fact that the scientist are growing 4'000 worms, they might be interesting in having big quantity of material :
They are not interested in analysing what the bulk of muscle is made of (we already know : it's mostly actin & myosin). They are probably more likely investigate the sublte change in chemical pathway / messenger / hormones, etc. - Perhaps a massive proteomics study ?
These molecular intermediates happen to be in much lower concentration. Our biological systems are really good at detecting and reacting to minute amount of target substance.
Therefore the scientist will be trying to detect tiny trace amounts of (yet) unknown chemicals, whereas modern spectrometers feature dynamic ranges "only" on the order of 1:1*10^6.
(i.e.: You can still spot one rare protein hidden among a mass of one million albumin copies. But something less concentrated could get hidden in the noise)
As such, to increase chance of detection, scientist use method as depletion of over abundant proteins (like albumin), concentration of sample, pooling of several samples, etc.
All this requires more raw material. And a whole box full of 4000 worms is much more handy than the minuscule amount you could get in the tip of a biopsy needle. (I doubt any scientist will ethically accept amputating a whole muscle out of some crazy-volunteer's leg)
Also, it is much easier to grow worms on some labelled food, that will be incorporated into their muscle, whereas their cousins who remained on earth could be fed differently labelled food. This enables the scientist to be able to compare the two pools to detect changes of concentration of various chemicals.
This would be much more difficult with adult human being (we're bigger and have a slower turnover of our proteins). And I don't know if there are long-term-safe markers which could be used with humans (non-radioactive isotopes, maybe ?). With worm which are going to be sacrificed anyway, you can go crazy (radio active labelling, long-term toxic labels, etc.)
In addition, for such experiment to work, the scientist will need atrophied muscle. As GP pointed out, current astronauts do sport, even if it isn't efficient, just to keep them in shape (within what's currently possible). It would be ethical to order them to stay immobile until they transform into a big puddle of meat unable to stand upright.
Well of course, all this is opposing the well-being of creatures who are able to understand what's going on and who might consciously accept risks and volunteer, versus the well-being of poor mute worms who were never asked if they agree with the whole experiment.
In addition of the ethical reasons there's a plain stupid logistic one : You would need a negative control.
And it's way more easy to just grow 2 boxes of worms : 4000 in microgravity aboard the ISS and 4000 in another box left under an effective influence of the gravitational field.
Whereas with human you would need identical twins - and I don't know how much astronauts have twins, Einstein's thought experiment not-withstanding - and/or big cohorts to average inter-individual variation - and it's expensive already to send a small team of astronauts to the ISS.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
These are the same worms who survived reentry inside their experimental cannister when Columbia broke up in 2003:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/04/0334219
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/01/1134217