Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth on Wednesday with an Israeli
experiment that looks into the sources of life and why people age.
The
experiment, reported for the first time by Israel Radio, is under the guidance
of Dr. Eran Schenker of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies
in Herzliya.
Researchers sent cultures of mammalian cells on the space
shuttle and will compare the rate of decay of the cells in space with the rate
of decay on Earth.
A previous experiment conducted during the same
Endeavour mission in mid-May involved a test on adult stem cells to study the
influences of weightlessness on bone cells and resultant osteoporosis, an
experiment that was to have been performed by Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon
on the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia in 2003.