Daily Mail
June 12, 2017
Researchers sent flatworms aboard the International Space Station for five weeks to study how an absence of normal gravity can affect behavior and anatomy – in particular, their ability to regenerate missing parts.
Flatworms were either left whole or amputated, and most surprisingly, one of the amputated fragments regenerated into a double-headed worm.
When the researchers amputated both heads, they also discovered the headless middle fragment regenerated into another double-headed worm.
The research has implications for human and animal space travelers, and for regenerative and bioengineering science.
The research, led by the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, was conducted to study how an absence of normal gravity and geomagnetic fields can have anatomical, behavioral and bacteriological consequences.
This article was posted: Monday, June 12, 2017 at 8:44 am