Flies take next giant step for mankind

Scotland on Sunday ^ | 01/01/06 | RICHARD GRAY

[KevinDavis]

SCOTTISH scientists have received a massive Nasa grant to work out whether humans can successfully reproduce in space and colonise other worlds.

The team have been given £800,000 by the US space agency to breed several generations of fruit flies in zero gravity and then examine any genetic changes in the insects.

The unique project is an essential first step towards discovering whether mankind can survive for generations in space and establish permanent homes elsewhere in the solar system.

The grant has been awarded to Dr Douglas Armstrong, a behavioural geneticist at Edinburgh University, who hopes to get his experiments into space aboard the shuttle by the end of 2007.

[KevinDavis]

[LauraleeBraswell]

Why is the US government paying Scottish scientists?

[RichInOC]

Okay, maybe I'm dense, but isn't there a more obvious way to see whether people can breed in space?

[ancient_geezer]

Maybe, Scottish flies don't wear underware under their kilts?

Less weight in launching them into space yah know ;O)

[LauraleeBraswell]

How about like, paying American Scientists to do the job? Seriously, nothing seems more obvious to me.

[Americanchild]

Does it really cost that much to breed flies? I mean...seriously!

[Ichneumon]

Does it really cost that much to breed flies? I mean...seriously!

It does when you have to launch them into space to do it, then bring them back to examine the results.

[RichInOC]

I was thinking that, if they really want to know whether human subjects can reproduce in space conditions, wouldn't the most obvious method be to use, you know, human subjects?

[mysterio]

Good. Let Europe waste their money on space madness. Meanwhile, we should privatize NASA. It's neat that carrots grow in space. It's not 2 or 3 billion dollars neat, though.

[EsmeraldaA]

Very cool new Ping graphic.

Happy New Year KD!

[BenLurkin]

"whether humans can successfully reproduce in space"

I suppose the obvious method of determining this is out of the question for reasons of cost?

[Grut]

...wouldn't the most obvious method be to use, you know, human subjects?

Wot, kiss and tell? Worse yet, file reports?

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

Hoot mon. The Yanks are just plain daft.

[Paleo Conservative]

How about like, paying American Scientists to do the job? Seriously, nothing seems more obvious to me.

No American scientists thought of it. I'd rather have the best experiments flown regardless of the origin of the scientists.

[manwiththehands]

"The team have been given £800,000 by the US space agency to breed several generations of fruit flies in zero gravity and then examine any genetic changes in the insects."

We've been breeding hundreds of thousands of fruit flies to test "evolution".

This oughta work, though. Yep. I'm sure we can learn a lot about human biology studying "several generations" of fruit flies in zero g.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"Lord of the Flies" ping!

[taxesareforever]

If they employee NOW or Pro-Choice groups to help in this experiment their answer would be NO, you can't reproduce in outerspace.

[Bob]

It does when you have to launch them into space to do it, then bring them back to examine the results.

Yeah, I guess it's cheaper making use of the world-renowned Scottish space program. :=)

[orionblamblam]

> if they really want to know whether human subjects can reproduce in space conditions, wouldn't the most obvious method be to use, you know, human subjects?

And if zero-g means that humans don't develop properly, or the cosmic ray/other radiation issues mean that babies turn out to be horrible freaks... then there'll be no ethical issues?