Silkworms on board the recent Russian Foton-M bio-satellite flight span the first space silk in history, a Moscow school teacher revealed Tuesday.As part of the satellite's scientific program, Moscow school students, led by biology teacher Alexander Koloskov, carried out an experiment to study how weightlessness influences the life cycle of silkworms.
Experiments on board the satellite also revealed that worms are able to produce silk in microgravity conditions, but can not pupate, as they pass silk threads around the sticks they are sitting on rather than around their bodies. Disorientation was given as one possible reason for this.
Source: Novosti
Tags: Silkworm | Silk | Pupate
Comments