Worms orbit Planet Earth ...to fight fat

THOUSANDS of worms are to be blasted into space to help scientists study muscle loss and obesity.

The tiny roundworms have a similar structure to humans – who lose 40 per cent of muscle in orbit.

They will be launched by rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station.

After feeding for a week 408km up they are frozen and returned to earth.

Dr Timothy Etheridge, of the University of Exeter in Devon, said his team aims to find how muscles burn glucose and fat, helping the elderly, people with muscular dystrophy, diabetes and obesity – or even stuck in plaster casts.