In a recent research, it was claimed that a microscopic worm can live longer in spaceflight as compared to that on Earth. It was claimed by a team of researchers from the University of Nottingham that there were five genes in Caenorhabditis elegans which had reduced activity, thereby increasing their lifetime. There was also involvement from a team of researchers from Japan, France, the United States and Canada. They were of the view that spaceflight has the tendency of reducing the accumulation of toxic proteins, which grow because of aging muscle.

It was told that the worms became part of the mission run by the human astronauts who were already living onboard the International Space Station. "It would appear that these genes are involved in how the worm senses the environment and signals changes in metabolism in order to adapt to the environment”, said Nathaniel Szewczyk, of the University of Nottingham, while claiming that though there is no doubt that muscles do shrink in space, the results from the study are indicating that it has nothing to do with any pathological reason, instead it depends highly on an adaptive response.

There have been studies done to know a lot more about how worms help unveil a lot about blocking muscle degradation in those who are aged and sick, but this research has certainly gone a step ahead.