Tiny worms spend 28 generations in space - The Globe & Mail

[applegrove]

Tiny worms spend 28 generations in space
ANNE MCILROY
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
June 7, 2007 at 4:05 AM EDT

The worms blasted off six months ago, but only their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren are coming back from the International Space Station alive.

And they will probably be mutants.

Simon Fraser University geneticist Bob Johnsen will soon be assessing the tiny space travellers for signs of genetic mutations caused by radiation. The experiment is an attempt to get a handle on how dangerous long-term space travel would be for humans - and their offspring.

"Only by analyzing the extent of their genetic mutations will we be able to understand the impact of lengthy exposure to radiation in space," says Dr. Johnsen.

.......SNIP"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070607.wspaceworms07/BNStory/Science/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp

[maxsolomon]

1. DO NOT bring those mutant worms back to earth!

i have no desire to be ruled over by worms who can shoot lasers out of their eyes.

[Spinzonner]

2. I wouldn't worry about it too much

Their range is probably very limited

[shireen]

5. don't misunderestimate mutant space worms

they can transmit laser rays via tubes called internets. The rays will zap you from your computer. They will also get your password and send it to [e-mail] so the creature they worship can read your email.

They also control zombie astronauts in the ISS to do their bidding.

[applegrove]

10. Hmm. Perhaps they have already returned. Didn't the boss of NASA

already make a statement in regards to "Global Warming...could be a good thing".

[shireen]

11. ooh! you're right!

they must have hitched a ride back with Martha Stewart's boyfriend. (BTW, I say that with great affectionate sarcasm, I love Martha!)

Administrator Griffin has super-mutant-ninja-worms in his brain. Oh dear ....

[whistle]

3. Worm like creaters were our common ancestor with other mammals

...<snip>

Slow human evolution revealed by worm genome
Medical Science News
Published: Tuesday, 10-Jan-2006
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Humans have retained genomic characteristics of a very ancient ancestor that have been lost in simpler animals such as the fly, indicating that humans are one of the most slowly evolving species. This is the finding of an international team of scientists including Dr David Ferrier of Oxford's Department of Zoology published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
The genes of animals usually contain extra bits of DNA sequence, called introns - regions that are removed before cells make their proteins. Humans have many introns in their genes, while common animal models such as flies have fewer. From an evolutionary perspective it was long assumed that the simpler fly gene organization would be more ancient. The new study reveals the opposite: early animals already had a lot of introns, and quickly-evolving species like flies have lost most of them.

Worm-like creatures which lived more than 550 million years ago are thought to be the last common ancestor of almost all living animals, including worms, flies and humans. In order to better understand the genetic make-up of this creature, the team sequenced part of the genome of a living marine worm, Platynereis dumerilii, which has very similar characteristics. They found that Platynereis genes have almost the same number of introns as humans (often in the same place), and many more than insects.

'We conclude that at least two-thirds of human introns already existed in our ancient ancestor,' said Dr Ferrier. 'This shows that rather than genes getting more complex over the course of evolution, they were already quite complex in the earliest animals. The use of Platynereis will help us to build a picture of the organism that lived more than 550 million years ago, from which most of the diverse forms of animals that we see around us today evolved.'

http://www.ox.ac.uk/

[shireen]

8. WE ARE WORMS. QED.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. I welcome our new worm overlords

I've been eating dirt for years, anyway.

[applegrove]

6. ROTFLMAO!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. You forgot ", for one," -nt

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Oops. You're right.