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Space Science

Live Worms Found in Columbia Wreckage 327

Posted by michael from the now-we-just-need-some-tequila dept.
Scoria writes "CNN is reporting that hundreds of live worms, fourth or fifth generation descendents of the subjects of a scientific experiment conducted aboard Columbia, have been discovered amongst the shuttle wreckage. The worms, C. elegans , share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."
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Live Worms Found in Columbia Wreckage More

Live Worms Found in Columbia Wreckage

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  • It's not one way.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by maharg ( 182366 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:45AM (#5851378) Homepage Journal
    Many humans share common characteristics with worms, too.

  • dont bother clicking the link..here's the story (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:46AM (#5851381)
    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Hundreds of worms from 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 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 February 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 removed from the original worms placed on Columbia in January.

    The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans. In 1999, C. elegans became the first multicellular organism to have the sequencing of its genome completed.

    C. elegans have two sexes: males and hermaphrodites, which are females that produce sperm. A hermaphrodite worm can self-fertilize for the first 300 or so eggs but later usually prefers to accept sperm from males to produce a larger number of offspring.

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

    The moss, known as Ceratodon, was used to study how gravity affects cell organization. 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.

    Why worms?
    The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans.

    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.

    NASA officials 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."

  • Size matters? (Score:3, Funny)

    by eightball01 ( 646950 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:46AM (#5851385)
    If they're the size of a pencil tip, just how many biological characteristics can they share with us?

    • Size matters more than that (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oliverthered ( 187439 ) <oliverthered@nOSPAm.hotmail.com> on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:50AM (#5851407) Journal
      When I was younger.... smaller and lighter I could easly jump out of a second story window onto the ground without causing myself any injury.

      Now I'm older, taller and fatter there's no way I'd jump out of a second story window, it's hurt too much.

      It's not too surprising that something small survived whilst the people died.

    • Re:Size matters? (Score:4, Funny)

      by beders ( 245558 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:50AM (#5851411) Homepage
      C. elegans have two sexes: males and hermaphrodites, which are females that produce sperm

      They don't share this one do they? Is my wife keeping something from me?
    • If they're the size of a pencil tip, just how many biological characteristics can they share with us?

      I understand that some of them voted for Bush in Florida. Whether they meant to or not is another question.

    • Re:Size matters? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Daniel Dvorkin ( 106857 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:23AM (#5851880) Homepage Journal
      To some degree, this is a serious question, so I'll give it a serious answer: C. elegans serves as a useful model of development in multicellular animals (like us) because it's about the most primitive animal that still has basic systems like a nervous system, a digestive system, etc. It's also very tough (as this incident proves), reproduces quickly, and is easy to tinker with in the lab. IIRC, it was the first animal to have its genome completely sequenced.

      It also shows the capacity for rudimentary learning, making it of great interest to neuroscientist, since it's a lot easier to study the ~300 neurons in a typical C. elegans than the rather larger number found in more compex organisms.

  • Worms from outer space! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Hulver ( 5850 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:47AM (#5851390) Homepage
    Kill them now, before they start to mutate!

    I think they were the real cause of the crash, soon they'll start to take over the world unless they're stopped!

    • It's too late! They've already crashed in Texas and phase 2 of their plot has begun: to enslave the minds of our top polticians! Those close to the president have noted an increased appetite for dirt lately...

  • Pencil Tip (Score:2, Funny)

    by RustyTire ( 471778 )
    Yes... because we humans are the size of a pencil tip. Then again, it's it good that they are not the size of a VW.

    • Re:Pencil Tip (Score:5, Funny)

      by Artifex ( 18308 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:54AM (#5851428) Journal
      Then again, it's it good that they are not the size of a VW


      That would have made finding the rest of the wreckage a lot easier, though.

    • Re:Pencil Tip (Score:4, Funny)

      by Surak ( 18578 ) * <surakNO@SPAMmailblocks.com> on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:12AM (#5851496) Homepage Journal
      Yes... because we humans are the size of a pencil tip. Then again, it's it good that they are not the size of a VW.

      I think a pencil tip is equivalent to .00000001 VW beetles, or about 1,000,000,000 human-hair-widths.

      But I could be wrong. I wish they'd just switch to the metric system like the rest of the world! ;)

      • I think a pencil tip is equivalent to .00000001 VW beetles, or about 1,000,000,000 human-hair-widths.

        Wait, wait. How many Libraries of Congress is that again?

      • Re:Pencil Tip (Score:2, Funny)

        by pdbogen ( 596723 )
        I'll add that in to our Standard Astronomical English Solid Volume Measurement Systems (SAESVM for ease of pronunciation):

        Tennis Ball = 52 Pencil Erasers
        Bread Box = 346 Tennis Balls
        Bowling Ball = 2.2 bread boxes
        Volkswagen bug = 2560 bowling balls
        Football field (yes it's volumn, it's the english system) = 1340 Volkswage bugs
        Texas = 1,253,342 Foot ball fields
        China = 19,430 Texases
        "Your Mom" = 36,231 Chinas
        And a Your Mom is defined as the volume of a cube having each edge the exact distance traveled by light
      • I wish they'd just switch to the metric system like the rest of the world! ;)

        Who, humans or worms? Last time I looked, my VW was thoroughly metric :-)

    • Re:Pencil Tip (Score:3, Funny)

      by Zoop ( 59907 )
      it's it good that they are not the size of a VW

      Yes, but in America we are working on making humans that size by default.

  • So... (Score:4, Funny)

    by KDan ( 90353 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:48AM (#5851399) Homepage
    Let's make slashdot mods eat a fistful of them every time they posts a dupe :-) That would be a geeky punishment - being forced to eat space worms.

    Daniel
    • Nobody loves me
      Everybody hates me
      I might as well go eat space-worms

      Experimental juicey ones,
      Pencil-tip sized ones,
      See how they wiggle and skwirm.
  • The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."

    "C. elegans have two sexes: males and hermaphrodites, which are females that produce sperm. A hermaphrodite worm can self-fertilize for the first 300 or so eggs but later usually prefers to accept sperm from males to produce a larger number of offspring. "

    hrmm...

  • Pledge (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:50AM (#5851404)
    I'd like to pledge my loyalty to the alien overlord worms.

  • Err, what? (Score:3, Funny)

    by nilsjuergens ( 69927 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:50AM (#5851405) Homepage Journal
    > The worms, C. elegans, share many biological
    > characteristics with humans and are the size of a > pencil tip.

    Humans? Size? Pencil Tip?

    Well buddy yours might be that small but mine sure isn't ;-)
    • from little things, big things grow.

      We all started out somewhat smaller than pencil tip size. Just some of us got lucky and got bigger.

      So now we might guess that after the apocalpyse, along with cockroaches, there will be worms?

      When people ask David Attenborough if he believes in God, given all the beautiful things in the world he gets to see, he cites the case of a parasitic worm infecting the eye of a small african child sending the child blind.

      I like earth worms but pencil-tip worms are frightening.

  • Kent Brockman (Score:5, Funny)

    by semaj ( 172655 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @07:51AM (#5851414) Journal
    I, for one, welcome our new invertebrate overlords.

    I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to... toil in their underground sugar caves.

  • The worms (Score:2, Interesting)

    by subzero_ice ( 624972 )
    I am no expert but I think these worms must be tolerant to high temperatures because the space shuttle gets really hot when entering the Earth's atmosphere. God know what else are they tolerant to?
    • Very hot indeed. Stuck in a locker. Surrounded by shuttle. By the time the shuttle had disintegrated the air would have been cooling the locker not heating it.

      They're not uber-worms come to conquer the Earth.
  • I know how to keep the next astronauts safe: put 'em in "nine-pound locker[s] located in the mid-deck of the space shuttle"!
    • I'm afraid that will only keep their grandchildens clidren alive...

    • Re: No but seriously (Score:2, Informative)

      by dorfsmay ( 566262 )
      Nobody else seems to be surprised that the worms are still alive. I hope NASA will try to understnad what kept them alive, the locker or the worm anatomy ?

      This coul dend up with major consequences on space, and air travel safety (I'll ask for a locker myself next time I take the plane ;-).

      Don't laugh, there is ongoing research and inovation and airplane safety, like the built-in parachute on the cirrus [cirrusdesign.com].

  • Caenorhabditis elegans (Score:5, Informative)

    by Faeton ( 522316 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:06AM (#5851472) Homepage Journal
    They're not really elegant creatures, looking very non-discript. Scientist love them because they reproduce fast, and can tinker with their genes ( I believe they have the genome all mapped out). Some even have spliced in a "glowing" gene, much like the ones found in deep sea creatures into them.

    Go here for [ed.ac.uk] more info (genetic) and a pic of them

    • C. elegans and the value of the research (Score:4, Informative)

      by slinted ( 374 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @10:29AM (#5852280)
      Not only is the genome mapped out, but C. elegans has been a model organism for development. A complete flow-chart-esque understanding of the division of the first egg cell down to the last of its 959 cells [wisc.edu]. Its one of the first model organisms for a complete body-plan understanding of genetic development, but knowing the genes and figuring out the genes are 2 differant matters. Hence the experiments in space [nasa.gov] trying to understand how 0 g and amazingly controled environments affect gene expression.

      Seeing as the Columbia Mission was the first *pure science* mission not having to do with Space Station construction in 2 years, I think its a great legacy for those who lost their lives that some really amazing science can come out of their work.

  • Interesting Implications (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DCowern ( 182668 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:09AM (#5851482) Homepage

    This proves that life can survive a fiery impact with the earth -- like that of a meteor impact. On top of that, it's not even a single celled organism... even though these things are as small as pencil lead, they are somewhat organized multicellular organisms.

    I would think this might add a little bit more credibility to the people who think life originated in somewhere other than Earth.

    • Re:Interesting Implications (Score:5, Funny)

      by AccUser ( 191555 ) <mhg@taose . c o . uk> on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:28AM (#5851563) Homepage
      This proves that life can survive a fiery impact with the earth -- like that of a meteor impact.

      Provided that the life form in question is carefully organised into petri-dishes, hematically sealed in a selection of jars, and stored in a locker.

      • Provided that the life form in question is carefully organised into petri-dishes, hematically sealed in a selection of jars, and stored in a locker.

        I don't think it would take _too_ many survivors to carry on. If a few asteroids had millions of teeny worms then some of them might survive. But I'm probably talking out of my ass, partly because you'd have to ask where _those_ worms came from and how did they survive their trip from whereever to here.
      • Only meteors larger than a VW come standard with petri dishes and lockers, for others its an expensive option.
    • I'm not sure that this could be considered "proof" as such. Nothing in the article says anything about how much actual heat they were exposed to. Not being a biologist I have no idea if these worms could survive such temperatures or if there was some other factor that they survived. Plus they were in a "mid-deck" of the shuttle so that could be another factor. I think that when people talk about life originating from other than the Earth (such as the some theories to do with Mars), they are thinking mor
    • The firey part happened in the atmosphere, the shuttle broke apart and was scattered over a wide area. It's not like the worms survived in a "firey impact with the earth". Ever drop an ant or spider from a very high place? It will always survive -- not enough mass to cause it to travel fast enough against the air friction to hit the ground with any sort of impact that would hurt it. Even if you drop a container containing a group of fragile items, some will survive the impact, using others as a cushion. I

    • Go CNN sensationalism (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pVoid ( 607584 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:24AM (#5851885)
      It doesn't really prove that.

      The space shuttle did disintegrate, but in terms of space bound meteorite impact, it was quite a controlled descent. It broke apart, looked fiery, but that doesn't mean it was a ball of plasma. A Fighter jet can break down and look fiery at just 200 feet off the ground...

      My further point is that this article is somehow trying to strike the "oh look, things that have common characteristics with humans (in that their cells divide, and some of them have sperm <poster's humour>) made it alive through... it's not such a big tragedy after all."

      The first thing that's mentionned in the article is:

      All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on February 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.

      Anyways, boo on CNN, it both draws on sensationalism (exploiting a story because of it's tragic sense), and assumes readers are stupid...

      • ...this article is somehow trying to strike the "oh look, things that have common characteristics with humans (in that their cells divide, and some of them have sperm ) made it alive through... it's not such a big tragedy after all."

        What?? At most this is a melancholy little note after the event -- is it possible one of the experiments my produce data after such a catastrophic event? "No humans survived but the worms did, so it's not as big a tragedy"? Where the heck did you see that? I don't read that an

      • and assumes readers are stupid...

        Because 99% of CNN viewers ARE stupid.

      • ummmmmm... actually it was a ball of plasma during re-entry. Though it was technically controlled untill the breakup began in earnest.

        One point not made though is that meteors tend to hit at much higher speeds and at higher angles, butt hen its just a matter of enough rock to protect the worms and worms that can survive in it.

        I disagree that this is sensationalisim,this discovery is deffinatly news worthy. I do dislike the now ubiquotus ( on XXX date XXX happend killing XXX ) to every story in relation.

    • I would think this might add a little bit more credibility to the people who think life originated in somewhere other than Earth.

      I've never understood the whole point of that theory. Life on earth is too complex to have arisen by itself ... so it came from space? But where did the life in space come from?

      I guess I just don't like the theory because it doesn't explain anything or provide any real answers. :)

      • The gist of it is that some people think life on Earth arose far too quickly, and that amazes some scientists who propose that it must have had time to evolve first in some other place, and then contaminated Earth and continued its evolution here.

  • If they can... (Score:5, Funny)

    by gvonk ( 107719 ) <slashdot@gar[ ]tvonk.com ['ret' in gap]> on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:11AM (#5851489) Homepage

    If the worms can survive the crash, why can't they build the whole shuttle out of whatever worms are made of?
  • That's interesting.

    I remember the news stories that said if you found a piece of the space shuttle and you touched it you could face a huge fine. Would this also mean if you got infected with a weird viurus or "worm" you could sue? Think of how terrible it would have (or was) if they had biotoxins on board the shuttle?

    Does anyone know if these "similar to human" worms are harmful to humans?

    What makes them similar to humans anyway?

    Does radiation and antigravity make such creatures mutate? What if these

    • RTFA. The worms were in containers. They probably wouldn't have got on the other parts. And I'm no scientist, but I don't think antigravity makes anybody mutate.

    • Re:Don't touch the shuttle parts said the FBI ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by efatapo ( 567889 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:03AM (#5851757)
      Ok...

      Would this also mean if you got infected with a weird viurus or "worm" you could sue?
      Ok, you cannot be infected by C. elegans. They are not parasitic.

      Think of how terrible it would have (or was) if they had biotoxins on board the shuttle?
      Yeah, that would suck. Although it would probably either burn up upon re-entry or make it to earth safe in it's really good seal (as happened with these worms). Sure, once the box hit the ground it might break open...anyways

      Does anyone know if these "similar to human" worms are harmful to humans?
      Unless you were to swallow one and choke, these worms are not harmful to humans at all.

      What makes them similar to humans anyway?
      They share some genetic features. Some scientific stuff that no one cares about but scientists. C. elegans are similar to humans in the same way D. melanogaster (fruit flies) are similar to humans. Genetic and developmental regulators.

      Does radiation and antigravity make such creatures mutate?
      Radiation does cause things to mutate (although generally not in the grow an extra arm fashion). Antigravity does not. I don't think that these worms would have been to exposed to much greater radiation being in a space ship in space because the astronauts are not mutated upon returning home either.

      What if these worms were carrying some sort of bacteria in their digestive system like tape worms and mosquitos do that are bredding grounds for new super viruses like SARS and illness like Malaria???
      They were carrying bacteria in their digestive system, all organisms do. However, these bacteria would be particular to worms and not humans. And, see the previous argument on radiation. You have more to fear from the astronauts having mutant bacteria than the worms.

      • I don't think that these worms would have been to exposed to much greater radiation being in a space ship in space because the astronauts are not mutated upon returning home either.

        Contrary to popular belief, mutations generally do not affect already-living creatures. Those mutations that do affect living creatures are given names such as "cancer".

        However, if the worms have gone through multiple generations under these conditions, then it is possible that it will cause the nth generation to have visibl

  • They are fake worms. (Score:4, Funny)

    by noogle ( 664169 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:15AM (#5851505)
    Just like the moon landings and that other thing.

  • Lord of the mutant space froot flies (Score:3, Funny)

    by madmarcel ( 610409 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:16AM (#5851513)
    Tsk tsk - <<glares at /. editors>>
    I read that as: "Escaped mutant worms have been found alive in space-shuttle wreckage!"

    Bah, they were still in their containment ehh..container. How disappointing.
    I figured the little buggers had escaped and survived in the foam insulation of the space-shuttle. Maybe I should cut down on my daily
    intake of science fiction ;)

    Oh well, I'm surprised they didn't find any mutant fruit-flies (also from previous experiments ;)
    or a gigantic mutant space mould.
    (Wasn't one of them growing on good ol' MIR?)

    Hmmm....tasty spacebugs :P

  • Browse its genome (Score:5, Informative)

    by andkaha ( 79865 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:25AM (#5851550) Homepage
    The C. Elegans genome may be browsed here [ensembl.org]...

  • enough with the Dubiahh jokes... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Imazalil ( 553163 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:26AM (#5851555)

    "The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."

    Alright kids, enough with the George W. Junior jokes already. We know he's dumb but this is getting a little tired...

    ...what...

    no?

    oh alright carry on then...

  • Not again! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:31AM (#5851581)
    Once again NASA opens a can of worms in their Columbia disaster enquiry!

  • The asstronauts weren't pencil tip sized.

    But seriously, this goes a long way to prove the panspermia theory. Or atleast to disprove all the nay-sayers. If a pencil-tip-sized worm can survive that impact, then bacteria should be able to survive the impact of a comet.

    • Re:Too bad (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SlashdotLemming ( 640272 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:59AM (#5851722)
      But seriously, this goes a long way to prove the panspermia theory. Or atleast to disprove all the nay-sayers. If a pencil-tip-sized worm can survive that impact, then bacteria should be able to survive the impact of a comet.

      All this proves is that worms in a locker can survive a shuttle crash.
      That's the problem with all these conspiracy theories and wacky beliefs about the world. Someone looks at two statements, one of which is fact, and they conclude the other is fact, because it just seems like it might be true based on the first one. They then use their new 'fact' as a basis for proving other things, and away we go.

      • Whoa, Nelly. Hold on to your belly.

        I just added this vaugely scientific sounding paragraph so I wouldn't be modded into oblivion for my remark about the asstronauts.

      • True this doesn't go any way towards proving life actually came from another world which is history not science. It either did or didn't happen and would be pretty hard to prove either way. Science can only say whether it is possible.

        This incident can show under certain conditions living cells can come through the atmosphere alive, but we already knew that. Humans have been coming through the atmosphere alive for decades with some protection, much like these creatures had, heat shield, etc.

        What we need
  • The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans...
    Isn't this true of most animals by the virtue of their presumably conscious existence? What's the fascination with contained worms anyway? You people are such geeks! :-P

  • Well, they survive nukes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zerbey ( 15536 ) * on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:50AM (#5851672) Homepage Journal
    ...And airstrikes, and banana bombs and exploding sheep (sometimes).

    Why not shuttle accidents too? Should be a walk in the park for them! :)

  • If I had a nickel for every time I heard... (Score:3, Funny)

    by GamezCore.com ( 631162 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:50AM (#5851674) Homepage

    The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip.

    I've tried six or seven of the solutions offered by the Spam emails, but no matter what I do I still get that pencil tip comparison all the time!

  • Shuttle worms survive in shuttle (Score:5, Informative)

    by magi ( 91730 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:51AM (#5851682) Homepage Journal
    C. elegans belongs to the phylum of nematodes.

    Funnily, nematodes are called "sukkulamadot" in Finnish, which translates to "shuttle worms" in English.

  • Generation? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Daath ( 225404 ) <lp AT coder DOT dk> on Thursday May 01, 2003 @08:57AM (#5851714) Homepage Journal
    About C. Elegans, quoting this site [ed.ac.uk]:
    The lifecycle takes about 3 days at 20 deg.C.
    It was only 4th or 5th generation (times 3 days) - hmmm did they find it 15 days after?
  • Have any of the worms donned a space suit and escaped to save the princess?

  • Search for Spock (Score:4, Funny)

    by _underSCORE ( 128392 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:03AM (#5851749) Homepage Journal
    Didn't the same thing happen in Star Trek III?

    The scientists better watch out, because we know how fast those things can mutate.

  • CNN math wizzes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bigfatlamer ( 149907 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:10AM (#5851806)
    As they state in the article, C. elegans have a life cycle of 7-10 days. As they also state in the article, the shuttle, at the end of its mission, crashed on Feb. 1. That was 89 days ago. But somehow they've only managed to go through 4-5 generations? It's a pretty simple calculation.

    More interesting (like CNN hasn't ever had a problem with pretty obvious facts) however is the survival. If we were talking about fungi or bacteria, organisms which are able to enter a dormant/stationary phase of the life cycle, it wouldn't be too surprising that they could survive. But C. elegans just have a pretty basic (egg-->larva-->adult) life cycle so they don't have a mechanism for surviving extreme situations (like a flaming fireball smashing into earth).

    One of the great things about C. elegans is that they're easy to mutagenize and determine which genes give rise to characteristics such as resistance to UV/ionizing radiation, long life, ability to consume large volumes of alcohol, etc. I hope that some of these super space worms get into the hands of folks like Leon Avery [swmed.edu] or Tim Schedl [wustl.edu] so they can figure out what helped these guys survive.
    • It's a plot, I tell you! It's all a plot! The C. elegans are going to take over the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I can't believe we're going to be ruled by microscopic, invertebrate worms!!

    • Re:CNN math wizzes (Score:4, Informative)

      by toxcspdrmn ( 471013 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @12:27PM (#5853285) Homepage
      If we were talking about fungi or bacteria, organisms which are able to enter a dormant/stationary phase of the life cycle, it wouldn't be too surprising that they could survive. But C. elegans just have a pretty basic (egg-->larva-->adult) life cycle

      Not entirely true. Under ideal conditions the life cycle is egg-->L1 larva-->L2 larva-->L3 larva-->L4 larva--L5 adult but if conditions are not so good (overcrowding, lack of food etc.) Caenorhabditis can turn into something called a dauer larva [missouri.edu] which doesn't feed, doesn't move around much, and can survive for much longer.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zog The Undeniable ( 632031 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:14AM (#5851828)
    Shuttle astronauts have asked for their craft to be tightly packed with moss for the next mission.
  • Wow... Talk about your "Worms: Armageddon"...

  • In the NASA offices... (Score:3, Funny)

    by triaxcaribdis ( 566447 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @09:51AM (#5852040)
    You can just imagine it

    Scientist: (Rumages about the debrise) Oh no...
    Admin: What? What have you found?
    Scientist: We've opened up a whole can of worms here...

  • And this time, let's do it right - Elizabeth Hurley as Saavik to get his pon faar off...

    Seriously, this is a pretty interesting story from a scientific standpoint. Can there possibly be a more extreme barrier to survival than this?

    Of course, the conspiricist would wonder about the safety of all the other experimental residue that they were carrying. That's not to suggest that everything that goes up should be independently reentry-proof, but I wonder how well NASA could identify the parts of the vehicle

  • survive the fall? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by geoff lane ( 93738 ) on Thursday May 01, 2003 @10:32AM (#5852298)
    It's not the fall from 200Km that's the problem. Like any skydiver you will quickly reach about 120mph and stay at that speed. Even a human body would be mostly recognisable after it hit the ground. People have survived falls (sans parachute) from 20,000ft when they were lucky enough to hit trees or deep snow.

    The real problem arises when you need to reduce your orbital velocity from 8Km/s to zero. To do that you need to get rid of about 32GJ/Kg, which over a 10 minute reentry is about 50MW/Kg.

    It pays to be small and very light!

  • "The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans[...]"

    Yeah, one notable absence in the list of similarities being "Tendency to melt/dissolve upon reentry."
  • The worms, C. elegans, share many biological characteristics with humans and are the size of a pencil tip."

    Like what? Needing air and water and such, or is there any real similarities?

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