[ad_1]
NASA has sent mice in a dozen missions to the International Space Station since 2014, in a habitat specifically designed for microgravity. In their own way, rodent astronauts contribute to humanity's quest to explore Mars.
Before NASA sends human beings on this long journey, she wants to understand the effects of an extended stay in microgravity. Astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year in space to see what it would do to his body. It was not terrible: his bones thinned, his muscles atrophied, his genes changed, and parts of his eyes became crowded or swollen in a way that scientists still can not fully explain.
NASA has published its first report on a group of mice that spent 37 days in space, which, according to the agency, is "a long – lasting mission on the scale of the duration of life of rodents.
Scientists studied the behavior of animals in video to see how they adapted to weightlessness. At first, rodents seemed hesitant and confused. Then they quickly mastered skills such as using momentum to move to their destination and anchoring them to the wall with their tails while they were eating or grooming.
Mice have even developed a new behavior, which scientists have termed "race tracking": zero gravity towers sprinting around their habitat look like a hamster wheel. Scientists do not know why the mice did it. Their main theory: it was fun. NASA says it was probably not a stress response because mice normally behaved normally.
"The behavior is a remarkable representation of the biology of the entire organism," said April Ronca, NASA researcher and lead author of the mouse study, in a statement. "It informs us about overall health and brain function."
At the end of their mission, the mice returned to Earth in top form. They weighed as much as a ground-based control group and their coats were in "excellent condition," NASA reported.
[ad_2]
Source link