Searchers find live worms in shuttle wreckage

WCBS880.com ^

[Sub-Driver]

Searchers find live worms in shuttle wreckage

Wednesday April 30, 2003

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Hundreds of worms being used in 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 found 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 Feb. 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 old, Buckingham said.

The experiment was put together by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

The moss, known as Ceratodon, were used to study how a spaceflight environment influences cell growth. 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.

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.

Researchers 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.''

[cmsgop]

Amazing...

[Sub-Driver]

yea, unreal. amazing the lived.

[blackdog]

Not ready for humor on this one yet.....Bump for a few more months.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Well, at least we know that NASA was doing important, nationally-critical research that it was worth risking human lives for.

[onyx]

The damn democrats are everywhere!

[KevinDavis]

Would you have that we have explored the space wimpy way?

[Dark Wing]

Life manages!

[Springman]

Ping!

[jwalsh07]

How did those worms manage to survive without so much as a broken bone?

[leadpenny]

Thanks, I just saw this before you pinged me.

[nothingnew]

The worms, known as Clinton. elegans...

It's tough to kill worms...I used to try and drown them many years ago...and the fish laughed at me.

FMCDH

[arielb]

they are spineless...hmm maybe that's why Democrats are also around

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Would you have that we have explored the space wimpy way?"

Billions of dollars, and tragic deaths, do not seem justifiable costs for pushing out the frontiers of our "worm knowledge."

And NASA too conveniently uses such "science" as justification for itself.

The only truly non-wimpy way to explore space is via free market efforts. Funding bread and circuses by coerced payment (from taxpayers) is the truly "wimpy" way to explore space.

[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

The meek shall inherit the earth?

[mass55th]

"Well, at least we know that NASA was doing important, nationally-critical research that it was worth risking human lives for."

All the shuttle flights carry various experiments and work closely with the people who have developed these experiments. A highschool in Syracuse, New York provided an ant farm on Columbia's last flight. The kids worked closely with the astronauts for at least two years, kept in touch with them while in space and received the final experiment results just before the Columbia broke apart. The kids believed that the ants would become dormant, but were extremely surprised to learn that the ants in fact, increased their activity while in space. I'm sure the kids learned something through the experiments, not to mention the close relationships they had formed with the astronauts performing the experiments for them.

[Frank_Discussion]

While it may seem insignificant, this change in hive activity in a relatively well understood insect species is important all by itself. It generates a mystery as to whether it is an absence of gravitational cues simply forcing the ants to think that their environment was constantly pushing them on, or possibly it is a more subtle change in brain chemistry in the critters. If it is the latter, finding a direct opposite chemical interaction might produce permanent dormancy with less or non toxic methods than are used now. This could be extended to other insect species as well.

While not a justification for space-based research in itself, it would be a boon to our existence down here.

That all said, I understand, Bb, how you feel: NASA doesn't need to have a stranglehold on this sort of thing, and actually should facilitate (at most) the methods to get up there to do the research.

[Springman]

You're welcome, have a good one.

[ChemistCat]

You don't understand science at all. Why click on such a thread? Just to make fun of it, I suppose.

Go cook something on Teflon, and enjoy your ignorance. The worms wouldn't have been lifted merely to provide a humorous sidebar in Parade magazine at the end of the successful mission that almost was.

[blackdog]

Not on exact topic, but we were wondering if anyone has yet concieved in space? Female astronauts I mean......

When my wife has difficulty getting pregnant we just do a little romance and then go fly a few hours in my Cherokee. It's worked twice. We are convinced it's the vibration.

With all the experiments NASA does I can't imagine they have not been studying fertility in space for humans?