Optical fibers, cement, flatworms, proteins

They went to space and gained "superpowers"

[Global Trend of Scientific and Technological Innovation]

We are fortunate to live on Earth, a place with atmospheric protection, moderate temperatures, and a so-called "relatively normal" gravity level. If we went to a place with different conditions, life might not be so comfortable.

For example, in space. There is almost no gravity in space, people's bones become fragile, and they may not even know whether they are hungry, because without gravity people cannot feel what is happening to their bodies. Therefore, zero gravity is not friendly to humans. However, this does not mean that everything will "shut down" in weightlessness. In fact, some things actually become stronger.

Optical fiber material with fewer defects

"Ultra-pure fluoride" (ZBLAN) is a special optical fiber material, mainly used in medical products, fiber lasers, and near-infrared fields, and has long been regarded as an outstanding product of space manufacturing.

According to research by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ZBLAN manufactured in a microgravity environment is smoother and clearer than that made under Earth's gravity, and may also prevent the occurrence of defects.

According to a ** report by SpaceNews on February 23, the Silicon Valley startup "Flawless Photonics" produced more than 5 kilometers of ZBLAN on the International Space Station (ISS) within two weeks, with the goal of using ZBLAN to make submarine cables. ZBLAN is much more transparent than silica (the optical fiber glass in submarine communication cables), and the increased transparency means less signal attenuation. In the future, the company plans to continue manufacturing more preforms in space using microgravity.

More robust microgravity cement

Cement is the most basic material people need to build houses. According to a paper published in the journal Astronomy in 2019, ISS astronauts successfully mixed cement in a microgravity environment for the first time. The results were unexpected: compared with cement processed on Earth, the microstructure of cement samples processed on the space station changed greatly.

The researchers sent the basic components of cement to the ISS, then mixed water and tricalcium silicate, the main mineral component of cement, in a bag, and allowed it to harden through the hydration process for 42 days. The results showed that cement mixed in microgravity can indeed set just as it does on Earth.

Cement on Earth has a layered structure due to gravity, while the ISS lacks gravity, so the density of the mixed cement is very uniform, which means space cement is stronger. At the same time, space cement has more voids, and porosity also significantly affects the performance of cement materials. This result marks an important step by humanity toward the goal of "building houses on the Moon using local materials."

Regenerated two-headed flatworms, "alien" in form

The first batch of animals sent into space was not a stray dog named "Laika," but a group of fruit flies. On February 20, 1947, fruit flies rode a V-2 rocket into near space, then returned and survived. Scientists sought to explore the effects of the space radiation environment on organisms, so they chose fruit flies, which are genetically similar to humans. Today, people still use rockets to transport simple invertebrates, just to see what happens.

According to the official website of the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, on January 10, 2015, 15 flatworms were launched on the SpaceX-5 commercial resupply mission. These flatworms had their heads and tails cut off and were placed in a tube half filled with air and half with water, and then stayed on the ISS for 5 weeks. Flatworms are animals with a strong ability to regenerate severed body parts; if a flatworm is cut in half, the severed parts can each develop into two complete individuals. However, after returning to Earth, they underwent a miraculous change, directly growing two heads from a single trunk.

Terrified scientists cut off both heads of the flatworms, and the result was that two heads grew back again. Space permanently changed these flatworms. Scientists hope to understand the impact of the space environment on the human body by studying the changes in flatworms before and after going to space.

"Space proteins" with stronger performance

When people manufacture drugs in space, the drug performance also becomes stronger.

Protein crystal growth experiments are an important project in spaceflight activities. On the ground, due to the influence of gravity, it is difficult to produce single, pure protein crystals, while the unique microgravity environment in space allows proteins to unfold more fully and bind more sufficiently, better filtering out impurities, ultimately forming nanoscale, high-purity, highly uniform protein crystals.

NASA has long been committed to protein crystal growth experiments on the ISS. As of 2021, pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers had conducted more than 500 protein crystal growth experiments on the ISS, the largest single category of experiments conducted on the space station to date. They modified protein crystals, promoting the discovery of a new drug for treating tuberculosis, and also found a new delivery mechanism for anticancer drugs.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is also one of the institutions active in microgravity protein crystal growth research. One study examined the crystal structure of a protein associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Microgravity crystallization research produced several promising compounds, including a molecule named TAS-205.

In addition, large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly valuing the benefits that crystal growth in a microgravity environment brings to drug research and development. For example, Merck's PD-1 drug originated from protein purification and crystallization experiments on the ISS. As early as 2019, Merck published a research report stating that protein crystallization under microgravity conditions improved the efficacy of its oncology drug Keytruda. According to ** news in February this year, the drug's sales in 2023 have surpassed Humira, making it the world's new "drug king."