Worms live longer when flying into space

Ascaris has been taken up into space in an effort to study the health risks of Earth creatures in space travel missions.

Flying in space can help you live longer, according to an expert from the University of Nottingham (UK). However, the researcher this time is the parasite Caenorhabditis elegans , not humans.

Caenorhabditis elegans is found to live longer on earth orbit - (Photo: Wikipedia)

Dr. Nathaniel Szewcyk of the university, and a member of the ICE-FIRST project team, brings together experts from Japan, France, the United States and Canada, saying that her team can be tested. The loss of bone and muscle mass by sending millions of Caenorhabditis elegans worms to the Atlantis shuttle directly to the International Space Station (ISS).

They spent 11 days in orbit more than 360km above the ground, according to a report on the Scientific Reports magazine.

Accordingly, Dr. Nathaniel Szewcyk said flights into space have stalled the accumulation of harmful proteins that often appear only in aging muscles.

Experts also identified a group of inhibited genes that function while worms hover in space. When returning to earth, these worms live longer than their counterparts.

In previous trips, worms helped scientists to study the ability to prevent muscle degeneration in patients and the elderly.

The reason Caenorhabditis elegans was chosen to study the effects of cosmic radiation on humans is because most of its 20,000 genes are responsible for human function.