1. Also on board the shuttle are Medaka fish eggs, pregnant rats and moths. 2. Patricia Boksa and Bassem El-Khodor of McGill University in Montreal gave pregnant rats general anesthetics and delivered their young by Cesarean section. 3. Ten pregnant rats also returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, and all now face dissection. 4. The research activities will examine the effects of weightlessness on pregnant rats, gold fish eggs and tobacco hornworms. 5. Working with Emmeline Randall and Richard Sibly of the University of Reading, Day added garlic or cumin to the food of pregnant rats. 6. Also along for the ride was a creepy, crawly cargo of pregnant rats, fish embryos and tobacco worms that grew into space moths during the voyage. 7. Even though studies showed that extract from bitter melon had very low clinical toxicity, it did show some toxicity in pregnant rats and rabbits. 8. NASA quickly unloaded the pregnant rats, and scientists began C-sections to remove fetuses from one womb each. 9. Tests also showed pregnant rats and offspring exposed to low levels of pesticides were unaffected, according to state health officials. |