Could human babies survive in space?

‘Completely unknown area of science’

MIAMI, May 24, (AFP): Freeze-dried mouse sperm that spent nine months in space has been used to produce healthy rodent offspring back on Earth, Japanese researchers said this week.

But could the same hold true for humans? And if conception were even possible in space, would babies born in zero gravity develop differently than their Earth-bound counterparts?

As NASA and other global space agencies work furiously on propelling people to Mars by the 2030s, experts say essential questions of survival on the Red Planet are often overlooked.

Rocket scientists have little grasp of how humans would live and breathe on Mars, or if they even could withstand the powerful doses of cosmic radiation they’d receive on the two- to three-year journey.

A key component to colonizing other planets — as SpaceX chief Elon Musk has vowed to do on Mars — would be having babies, said Kris Lehnhardt, assistant professor in emergency medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

This raises ethical questions about the potential for creating a new race of humans born in deep space or in microgravity.

“If your goal is to eventually be a truly space-faring species then this is an essential area to study,” he told AFP. “It is a completely unknown area of science.” A study in Monday’s edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, was an “interesting first step,” said Lehnhardt, who was not involved in the research.

Mouse sperm was freeze-dried and sent for nine months to the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth.

When the shipment returned, lead researcher Teruhiko Wakayama of the University of Yamanashi found the space sperm had sustained “slightly increased DNA damage,” after enduring an average daily radiation dose about 100 times stronger than on Earth.

Offspring

Back on Earth, embryos fertilized in vitro with the sperm produced healthy offspring, and grew into normal adults, “suggesting that the DNA damage observed in the space-preserved sperm samples was largely repaired in embryos after fertilization,” said the report.

But the research revealed little about what might happen in space.

“Everything that happened afterward was on the ground again,” Lehnhardt said.

For researchers who have examined the effect of deep space

shell on a hard-boiled egg, if the shell pieces moved along, over and under each other.

Tectonic plates average 50 miles (80 kms) thick and move only as fast as fingernails grow. But when they intersect, pressure builds until plates slip, causing earthquakes and volcanoes.

“Any kind of ground shift is somehow related to the tectonic plates,” said Maggie Benoit, EarthScope science program director.

The study of plate tectonics is only about 40 years old, Benoit said, and the National Science Foundation made a quarter-billiondollar commitment to advance the field. (AP)

‘Catastrophic risk’:

Nearly nine in 10 people say they are ready to make changes to their standard of living if it would prevent future climate catastrophe, a survey on global threats found Wednesday.

The survey of more than 8,000 people in eight countries — the United States, China, India, Britain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Germany — found that 84 percent of people now consider climate change a “global catastrophic risk”.

That puts worry about climate change only slightly behind fears about large-scale environmental damage and the threat of politically motivated violence escalating into war, according to the Global Challenges Foundation,

This undated photo provided by Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology shows a seismic station installed at Anaktuvak Pass in Alaska’s Brooks Range. The station sends out earthquake information in real time. (AP)

radiation on the reproductive organs of female lab mice, the news is not good.

A study published in the journal Reproduction this month showed that severe damage to the ovaries of female mice exposed to charged particles is typical of space radiation, “raising concern for premature ovarian failure in astronauts” exposed to deep space travel, it said.

One of the study’s authors, Ulrike Luderer, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine, said her research shows why the US space agency is worried about the health of deep space astronauts.

“These types of exposures can cause early ovarian failure and ovarian cancer, as well as other osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s,” she told AFP.

“Half the astronauts in the NASA’s new astronaut classes are women,” she added. “So it is really important to know what chronic health effects there could be for women exposed to long-term deep space radiation.”

Embryo

Lehnhardt said he is not aware of any studies that have shown rodents could successfully get pregnant in space, or that embryos could survive there.

“If a four- or eight-cell embryo gets hit by galactic cosmic radiation, the likelihood of that embryo surviving is probably quite low,” he said.

“If somehow the embryo could get past that stage we actually have no concept of how that would develop.”

Future experiments could involve sending embryos of various species to the space station.

But even then, it might be difficult to tease apart whether any problems in development are due to the absence of gravity, or to radiation, said Lehnhardt.

If somehow we took a “magical leap” to the point where an infant could be born in a spaceship, “you have a baby that in theory can’t stand or walk, and uses its arms as it is developing for movement,” he said, warning of the potential for a new evolutionary chain of humans.

Those born or raised on the Moon or Mars, which are considered to be partial gravity environments, might fare better, but still might not be exactly the same as Earth-born people.

“Maybe the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, or the one-third gravity of Mars is sufficient for normal bone and muscle development,” Lehnhardt said.

“That would lead to a similar species then spreading out amongst the solar system.”

which commissioned the Global Catastrophic Risks 2017 report.

But it indicates that many people now see climate change as a bigger threat than other traditional or rising concerns such as epidemics, population growth, use of weapons of mass destruction and the rise of artificial intelligence threats.

On climate and environmental issues, “there’s certainly a huge gap between what people expect from politicians and what politicians are doing. It’s stunning,” said Mats Andersson, vice chairman of the Stockholm-based foundation, in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The survey, released in advance of this week’s G7 summit

of advanced economies in Italy, also found that 85 percent of people think the United Nations needs reforms to be better equipped to address global threats. (RTRS)

‘Lake’s waters not impaired’:

The US Environmental Protection Agency won’t declare Ohio’s western end of Lake Erie impaired by toxic algae, siding with state regulators who say they are making progress in tackling the problem.

The decision released Monday means Ohio will continue to take the lead on fighting the algae blooms that in recent years have fouled drinking water in the shallowest of the Great Lakes.

The EPA said it recognizes the state’s ongoing efforts to reduce pollution feeding the algae.

Several environmental groups have been pushing the EPA to make the impaired watershed designation and pave the way for increased pollution regulations. Those groups last month sued the EPA to force the agency to make a decision on whether the western part of the lake should be declared impaired under the Clean Water Act.

“By any measure, western Lake Erie does not meet the Clean Water Act’s standards of fishable, drinkable, and swimmable for significant portions of the year,” said Molly Flanagan, of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

She said the decision fails to protect drinking water and recreational opportunities for people along the lake. (AP)