Left: Mosquito larva develops its own nano-suit for protection under the radiation and space-like environment of an electron microscope
Right: Mosquito larva with no protection quickly dehydrates under an electron microscope (via MIT)
What does it take to survive space travel? A tough, durable suit that can withstand the radiation and vacuum pressures of the environment is clearly necessary, as we’ve seen - but these suits are not the most flexible attire for moving around very much. Though MIT has been working on a BioSuit that scientists hope changes that, a team of researchers at the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine in Japan have made a discovery that allows larvae to survive space-like environments under an electron microscope via a “nano-suit” layer of protection around their bodies.
Takahiko Hariyama and colleagues made the discovery while observing mosquito larvae under an electron microscope. Electron microscopes require a vacuumed environment to avoid the absorption of the electrons used to take pictures by air molecules. The tiny organisms were placed under the microscope and bombarded with electrons, wiggling around unharmed for an hour. Typically, tiny insects placed in this environment quickly suffer from dehydration, facing close to immediate death - however, those that were immediately struck by electron showers survived.
After taking a closer look at the larvae skin, the scientists observed that the surface of their skin had changed. Energy from the electrons caused a thin layer of the insect’s skin (50-100 nm thick) to link together and forms a tough, flexible exterior shell through a process called polymerization. To further test this “nano-suit” theory, the scientists used a non-toxic chemical called Tween 20 to polymerize the skin of other larvae and, sure enough, those larvae were also able to survive the electron microscope environment unscathed.
Though far from the development of actual space nano-suit technology, the researchers’ findings has some notable and exciting implications. The findings can be used to explain how tiny creatures can survive actual space travel atop the surface of meteorites by the development of nano-suits. A human-equivalent suit, however, would require “sunbathing naked on top of Everest under a hole in the ozone,” says microscopist Jeremy Skepper of the University of Cambridge - so, it looks like we’ll have to wait for MIT’s BioSuit to be finished before we move on to upgrading our own skin for outer space travel. Still, the Japanese scientists hope this discovery will at least aid in studying the insides of tiny organisms at high resolutions.
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