Sperm stored in space makes healthy baby mice on Earth

Lengthy stays on board the International Space Station don’t seem to hurt sperm fertility. In a new study, mice on Earth successfully gave birth to litters of pups after being fertilized with sperm that had been freeze-dried for nearly a year on the ISS. It’s potentially good news if, one day, animals and people will have to reproduce beyond Earth. But experts say there is still a lot more research that needs to be done to fully understand how the space environment affects reproduction.

The point of this study, published today in the journal PNAS, was to see if the sperm experienced extensive DNA damage while in orbit around Earth. On the ISS, people receive between 10 to 100 times more radiation than they do on our planet, and the parts of the body most sensitive to that exposure are the reproductive organs.

Advertisement

“WE GOT MANY HEALTHY OFFSPRING FROM SPACE SPERM.”

Sure enough, the sperm from space, which stayed on the station for 288 days between 2013 and 2014, had a bit more DNA damage when compared to sperm that had remained on Earth during that time. However, it didn’t affect the sperm’s ability to fertilize eggs back on our planet. The genome of the resulting offspring was also totally normal and only had minor differences than the pups born from the sperm on Earth, according to the study authors. “We got many healthy offspring from space sperm,” Teruhiko Wakayama, a biologist at the University of Yamanashi in Japan and lead author of the study, wrote in an email to The Verge. “Those pups could not have any genetic damage.”

Having kids in space or on other planets is an important topic for those with dreams of establishing a colony on Mars or elsewhere beyond Earth. And knowing how radiation affects sex organs is just the first step in figuring out if reproduction in space is even possible. The problem, though, is this study barely scratches the surface of the issues associated with sex in space. Radiation is a major concern, but another major variable is how a fetus would grow in an environment without gravity. And we are still uncertain how that would play out.

“NO ONE GOT PREGNANT IN SPACE AND HAD THE BABY.”

“No one got pregnant in space and had the baby,” Dorit Donoviel, associate professor at the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor University, who was not involved with the study, tells The Verge. “An ideal experiment would be to really have mice mate and deliver a litter of pups in space, and I don’t even know if the mating is even feasible for mice in zero gravity.”

Plus, this experiment does not fully capture the radiation exposure that sperm might experience on a mission to Mars, for instance. There are two major sources of space radiation: highly energized particles streaming out from the Sun or deep-space cosmic rays — particles traveling near the speed of light that stem from distant stars either within or beyond our galaxy. On Earth, we’re protected by this radiation thanks to our atmosphere and magnetic field; the magnetic field around our planet, known as the magnetosphere, deflects or captures the incoming particles, and the ones that make it through are mostly absorbed by our atmosphere.

Since the ISS is outside the bulk of our atmosphere, it is exposed to higher doses of these particles. However, the station is still within our magnetosphere, which offers a lot of protection. But anyone traveling to deep-space destinations will be exposed to highly energized particles that can potentially cause a lot more severe DNA damage.

Even though astronauts on the ISS are protected from a lot of radiation, they are counseled about cryopreserving their sperm and eggs just in case, according to Joseph Tash, a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center who studies how space may affect male and female reproductive health. However, many astronauts have returned home from lower Earth orbit and have had no problems with fertility, according to Donoviel. “I’m not surprised this sperm is fine,” she says. “We know that astronauts who come back from space have been just fine and have had children normally.” She argues that our body has mechanisms for repairing DNA damage in sperm and eggs, as long as the damage is not too severe.

“WE KNOW THAT ASTRONAUTS WHO COME BACK FROM SPACE HAVE BEEN JUST FINE AND HAVE HAD CHILDREN NORMALLY.”

To really understand the radiation risks, an experiment would need to be done beyond Earth’s protective magnetic shield. But Tash says the only way reproduction in space can be made possible is if “radiation-hardened” facilities are created, to protect growing embryos from exposure. “Given the nine-month gestation for humans, the pregnant mother would also need to be protected by such a facility,” he adds. “So it presents very real habitat, medical, social, and psychological questions that need to be addressed as well.”

But for now, Donoviel says we really need to study if a baby can even grow in a microgravity environment. Since it might be difficult to have mice mating in space, she envisions an experiment in which female mice are launched to the station as soon as they become pregnant and then give birth when they’re up there. That way, the pups develop most of the time in zero gravity. Similar experiments were done in the ‘90s, when pregnant rats were flown for a short time on board the Space Shuttle. The rats gave birth back on Earth, and their offspring had problems properly orienting themselves. Donoviel says there might be even more issues the longer a fetus develops in space. “Embryo development would not be normal, because I think gravitational forces may play a role in how the different organs form,” she says.

Getting pregnant on Mars, though, may be a different story since the planet has one-third the gravity of Earth. Still, it’s unclear how partial gravity may affect a developing embryo, and we won’t know until we test it out. But that’s far away into the future. For now people shouldn’t be thinking about having kids in space anytime soon, Donoviel says. “We’ve got our hands full just keeping adults healthy,” she says. “The last thing I want to worry about is a baby who is going to be a lot more vulnerable.”

Related Articles

🌍Frozen 'space sperm' passes fertility test READ MORE

🌏Space sperm produces healthy mice, raising prospect of future human settlement READ MORE

🌍Space mice: first animals born from sperm stored on International Space Station for 9 months READ MORE

Climate Change Warming Lake Tahoe, Hurting Clarity

Scientists have said climate change is to blame for Lake Tahoe being warmer than usual and cutting down on its clarity.

On the heels of a five-year drought, two-year warming trends have caused some to worry about the lake that is known for its clear blue waters. 2015 data showed that Tahoe’s average surface temperature had risen faster over the previous four years than any time on record and 15 times faster than the long-term warming rate over the past 50 years.

Advertisement

In 2016, the temperature was again at record levels. Annual average clarity for 2016 was about 4 feet worse than in 2015. 

Related Articles

🌎Climate change's toll on Lake Tahoe's clarity continues READ MORE

🌏Climate change taking toll on clarity of Lake Tahoe water READ MORE

Watch Also

Norway to boost protection of Arctic seed vault from climate change

Norway is boosting the flood defences of its Global Seed Vault on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard after water entered the entrance tunnel last year.

The storage facility, deep inside a mountain, is designed to preserve the world's crops from future disasters.

Unseasonably high temperatures last year caused the permafrost to melt, sending water into the access tunnel.

No seeds were damaged but the facility is to have new waterproof walls in the tunnel and drainage ditches outside.

The vault stores seeds from 5,000 crop species from around the world. Dried and frozen, it is believed they can be preserved for hundreds of years.

Inside the doomsday vault

Although most countries keep their own supplies of key varieties, the Global Seed Vault acts as a back-up.

Advertisement

If a nation's seeds are lost as a result of a natural disaster or a man-made catastrophe, the specimens stored in the Arctic could be used to regenerate them.

Scientists at the facility describe the vault as the most important room in the world.

Government spokeswoman Hege Njaa Aschim told the BBC that the reason the vault was built on Svalbard was because the permafrost was thought to be permanent.

She said the problems emerged last October when the temperatures, instead of being -10C or colder, were hovering around 0C.

"It was like a wet summer in Norway," she told the BBC.

"Inside the mountain it's safe but the problems we have experienced are just outside and in the front of the tunnel, which is the entrance. So Yes, maybe something has changed in the permafrost, but we don't know, and that is what the climate researchers are looking into. We have to follow them carefully."

The new measures announced include drainage ditches on the mountainside to stop water from accumulating around the access tunnel.

Waterproof walls inside the tunnel itself will provide extra protection for the vaults.

In addition, Statsbygg, the agency that administers the vault, is to carry out a research and development project to monitor the permafrost on Svalbard.

Related Articles

🌎Norway to boost climate change defences of 'doomsday' seed vault READ MORE

🌏Doomsday Arctic seed vault suffers breach READ MORE

🌍Water breaches ‘Doomsday’ vault entrance, seeds unharmed READ MORE

People are still marching to save the climate, but with less hope

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied for the People’s Climate March on April 29, but the mood was bleaker than the First People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014.

In September 2014, nearly half a million people crammed the avenues of New York for the first march to urge nations of the world to take bold action on global warming. It was the eve of the UN Climate Summit and PRI’s Living on Earth team was there. At the intersection of 46th Street and Sixth Avenue the atmosphere was joyful, almost like a carnival parade.

The organizers wanted a “big tent,” because what happens to the climate affects everybody. More than 50,000 students marched. Over 1,500 different organizations were there — a strong labor contingent, including many from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, brandishing brooms and mops. There were anti-nuclear campaigners, Veterans for Peace, many different faith groups and Native Americans. Britney Anster represented the Haliwa-Saponi nation of Hollister, North Carolina.

Advertisement

“It’s important because we are nature,” Anster said. “We are the air, the Earth — not just indigenous people, but all people. We share this communal Earth, and we’re here fighting for climate justice, not just for us, but for all people, especially our future generations.”

Native Americans and Canadian First Nations were leading the march, along with some of the other communities most affected by global warming — island nations and people on the front lines who’ve already experienced weather extremes; people like Kathy Sykes from Jackson, Mississippi.

“I’m here because we as a people have to come together to do something about climate change,” Sykes said. “Mississippi has seen the brunt of it with Hurricane Katrina. We still have not recovered. We’ve had a big oil spill in the Gulf Coast. It is terrible. So we’re here fighting, trying to do whatever we can to draw attention to the need to stop climate change and save our world.”

It seemed the nations were listening. The size and determination of the People’s March helped spur the momentum toward the crucial UN Climate Conference of Parties, COP 21, in Paris in December 2015. Urgency, diplomacy and arm-twisting all helped persuade nearly 200 countries to sign onto the final Paris Agreement.

“This is a tremendous victory for all of our citizens, not for any one country or any one bloc, but for everybody here who has worked so hard to bring us across the finish line,” said then-Secretary of State John Kerry when the agreement was signed. “It’s a victory for all of the planet and for future generations.”

His optimism was shared by the climate change commissioner for the European Union, Miguel Arias Cañete.

“With this agreement, we're going to stop global warming below the 2 degrees or 1.5 degrees,” Cañete said. “Without it, the temperature will be increasing year by year: Now, we are on a pathway to 3 degrees. But if we raise the level of ambition over time, we will be able to stop global warming below 2 degrees, and that's what the world needs.”

But now, in 2017, the level of ambition to tackle the threat of global warming — or even to accept scientific consensus about it — seems to have evaporated in Washington. A year after some 200 countries signed the landmark Paris climate agreement, the Trump administration has indicated it might pull the US out of the accord.

It was partly disappointment at new administration policies, and an increasing sense of the dangers of inaction that brought thousands back onto the streets in 370 communities in the US and across the world for another People’s Climate March on April 29.

“We are here because there is no planet B. There’s no backup plan if we ruin this Earth that we have,” said Rev. Mariama White-Hammond at the rally in Boston. “No matter how many divisions there are across lines of race, religion, class, gender expression, immigration status — no matter how many divisions — we are bound together on this, one planet.”

Health workers, vegans, faith groups, teachers, students and activists for employment and climate justice joined worried citizens to rally for an end to fossil fuels and to raise the alarm about climate-related hazards that affect Boston and many coastal cities. There were fiery speeches and music, but overall a bleaker mood than the First People’s Climate March.

“That [first] march was just incredible. It was such an upswell of energy for the climate movement,” said one marcher. “Now, there’s more of a fear that things won’t be heard, even though we’re speaking. But there’s more of a need even now, I think, than in 2014. There’s more of a sense that we’re up against something really big.”

Related Articles

🌏Degrading Earth’s future climate READ MORE

🌎We should all care about climate change READ MORE

🌎New science standards hope to appease Idaho lawmakers READ MORE

'Pint of Science' research talks in Cardiff pubs

Scientists will take to the stage in Cardiff pubs to tell people about their research.

It is part of a world festival of public science talks, which is coming to Wales for the first time.

The three-day Pint of Science event will see 24 scientists giving demonstrations, live experiments and talks in the city's pubs from Monday.

Events also take place in more than 100 other cities across 12 countries and also include quizzes and puzzles.

Advertisement

Festival co-ordinator Michael Motskin said: "Science can often get lost in translation, leading to the spread of pseudo-science and myths.

"The best way to overcome this is for people to be able to talk to scientists directly in a familiar environment, such as in a pub over a pint."

Related Articles

🌎Three-day science festival kicks off at pubs across Glasgow today READ MORE

🌏Cambridge academics share latest research at Pint of Science festival READ MORE

🌍OUT OF THE LAB AND INTO THE PUB: SCIENTISTS FIND A NEW VENUE FOR SHARING SCIENCE READ MORE

Lack of dust makes China's air pollution much worse

Airborne dust is normally seen as an environmental problem, but the lack of it is making air pollution over China considerably worse.

A new study suggests less dust means more solar radiation hits the land surface, which reduces wind speed.

That lack of wind in turn leads to an accumulation of air pollution over heavily populated parts of China.

The researchers found that reduced dust levels cause a 13% increase in human-made pollution in the region.

Sands from the Gobi

Hundreds of millions of people across China continue to be impacted by air pollution from factories and coal-fired power plants.

Advertisement

Studies suggest that the dirty air contributes to 1.6 million deaths a year, about 17% of all mortalities.

But this new research says that the human-induced pollution is being made worse or better by naturally occurring dust that blows in from the Gobi desert.

Using models to simulate 150 years of wind and dust patterns in the region, the researchers found that the dust deflects significant amounts of sunlight.

Without it, more heat from the Sun hits the land. Differences in the temperatures between land and sea cause the winds to blow. Without the dust, the land warms up more and that changes the temperature differential with the sea leading to weaker breezes - and more air pollution.

"There are two dust sources. One is the Gobi and the other is the highlands of north-west China, but we found the Gobi had much more influence," said lead author Yang Yang, from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington State, US.

"Less dust in the atmosphere causes more solar radiation to reach the surface. It weakens the temperature difference between the land and the sea and impacts the circulation of the winds and causes a stagnation over eastern China and that causes an accumulation of air pollution."

Small change, big impact

The decreases in dust emissions are considerable, varying by almost a third. The impact on winds speeds are quite small by comparison, a reduction of barely more than one-tenth of one mile per hour.

However, when this takes place on a large scale over a wide region, the small change in speed means a 13% increase in the amount of air pollution over eastern China during the winter.

Another study has recently shown a link between declining Arctic sea ice and a major air pollution event in China in 2013.

The authors of the new study believe that both theories could be true.

"Our study has the same mechanism: the weakening of winds causes more pollution, and what is behind this needs to be studied," said Yang Yang.

"We have two views on this kind of weakening of wind. They found the sea ice, we found the dust-wind interaction can also lead to weakening of the wind. I think both of them are important."

The researchers believe that the study may inform broader questions about how natural and human-created aerosols interact.

Many parts of the world, in addition to China, are now suffering from increased levels of air pollution and understanding how dust, winds and emissions work together may help limit some of the worst impacts of dirty air.

One of the key lessons from this study is that the absence of dusty conditions could mean the air you are breathing is worse for you, not better.

"You're damned if you do, damned if you don't," said Prof Lynn Russell from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.

"Dust emissions can impair visibility, but they are not so harmful in terms of air quality," she told BBC News.

"If it's not a dusty year, you may be happy and spending more time outdoors because you don't have this dust in the way, but you are actually going out to spend more time in more toxic air."

The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Related Articles

🌏An unexpected culprit is making China's air pollution worse READ MORE

🌍As smog worsens, families fight to clean the air : Health worries have changed spending and lifestyle habits READ MORE

Trayvon Martin Awarded Posthumous Degree In Science

MIAMI GARDENS (CBSMiami) — Trayvon Martin was awarded a posthumous Bachelor’s Degree in aviation five years after he was fatally shot in central Florida.

Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, accepted a degree in Aeronautical Science on his behalf during a graduation ceremony at Florida Memorial University on Saturday. In a statement, the university said it was honoring the steps the 17-year-old took toward becoming a pilot before his death.

“Because your son has come to mean so much to so many, his story has resonated across the nation. Because as Dr. Martin Luther King once said, ‘Truth crushed to earth will rise again,'” said the school’s Vice President & Provost, Dr. Michelle Howard-Vital.

 “While we cannot restore the loss you have suffered, please accept this small token as a monument that Trayvon is loved and that his life matters to us.”

Advertisement

Trayvon’s parents called the ceremony bittersweet.

“To say that we’re thankful is an understatement,” said Tracy Martin. “I think this shows what this community, how they feel, how they believe in our family, believe in our foundation, how we’ve worked together, it was a heartfelt moment when they called Trayvon’s name to accept the degree for him, it was very touching.

This was a day that we planned for as parents, we just wish that we would have watched him walk across the stage.”

His family said Trayvon wanted to become a pilot. Fulton also graduated from the historically black university in Miami Gardens with a Bachelor’s Degree.

Related Articles

🌎Trayvon Martin receives posthumous aeronautical science degree from FMU READ MORE

🌏Trayvon Martin's parents accept posthumous aeronautical science degree READ MORE