NottinghamBlocking Earth’s magnetism extended sick fruit flies’ lives by 20%.
Healthy flies died sooner but moved better, the reverse of the Parkinson’s-model flies.
Pink1 mutants carry a defect linked to early-onset Parkinson’s that disrupts mitochondria, the cells’ energy generators.
“I was really confused at first,” said Jacob Reed, the Nottingham PhD student who co-led the study.
The study, published in Aging, tested only fruit flies, so the risk to future space travellers is untested.
How each outlet framed it
- 404 Media
- explains mitochondrial dysfunction mechanism linking magnetic field to aging, connects to human space travel risks
Sources: 404 Media