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State students to experiment with low gravity's effect on onions By TOM HOWARD Of The Gazette Staff Next month dozens of alfalfa leaf-cutting bees could be floating like butterflies while riding in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's zero gravity simulation aircraft.
In a related experiment, Montana students will try to determine whether low gravity affects mitosis, or cell division, within onion roots. Both experiments aboard NASA's low-gravity simulator, widely known as the Vomit Comet, could have implications for future long-term space missions, said Brian Stiff of Dull Knife Memorial Tribal College.
The bee experimentStudents at Lockwood School received an introduction to both experiments Wednesday. They watched as leaf-cutting bees, a little smaller than houseflies, buzzed inside a wire cage under the warming glow of a heat lamp. They also viewed a model of the Plexiglas box that will hold the bee experiment aboard the NASA craft. This won't be the first time that flying insects have experienced reduced gravity. In a previous experiment, honey bees were placed aboard the space shuttle to test how they respond to a low-gravity environment. But in that experiment, the bees tended to cling to the sides of the container, Stiff said. The new experiment seeks to address that problem by using a slick, inflatable floor on one of the bee-holding compartments. If the bees cling to the floor, it can be inflated to shake them off, he said. During the experiment, some bees will be subjected to different attractants such as geometric shapes and odors. The bees' behavior during the Vomit Comet flight will be recorded on videotape, and the tapes will be carefully studied afterward, Stiff said. "We're hoping to see if these bees can adapt to being weightless," Stiff told a group of Lockwood seventh-graders Wednesday morning. Stiff is site coordinator for the Tribal College Rural Systemic Initiative, a program from the National Science Foundation in which tribal colleges work to develop science and math standards with students in surrounding schools.
The onion experimentHeather Stein, a sophomore majoring in bio-medicine at MSU-Billings, said 580 onion bulbs will fly aboard NASA's low-gravity aircraft in the onion experiment. "By the time they're put on the plane the onions will have three-days growth," Stein said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "It's a two-hour flight and after that point, we'll put the root tips in a fixative." After that they'll be analyzed to determine how gravity or the lack of gravity affects mitosis.
Stein and Aimee Crowley of MSU-Billings plan to depart Billings for Houston on March 5. "It isn't going to be a high tech experiment, but the data we do collect may help NASA out in the future," Stein said. "It's going to be awesome." In recent weeks, Stiff has been visiting students in area schools to explain the experiment and to gather students' ideas about the experiments. The low-gravity experiments on bees and onions are being developed cooperatively by students from Dull Knife Memorial Tribal College, Montana State University-Bozeman and Montana State University-Billings. Students and their experiments will fly on NASA's KC135-A, reduced gravity aircraft. The plane simulates zero gravity by alternatively climbing and diving in a parabolic flight pattern. As the plane reaches the top of the climb and heads into the dive, objects inside float as if they are in space. But the pull of gravity becomes more intense as the aircraft pulls out of the bottom of the parabolic dive. As the name implies, the Vomit Comet isn't for everybody, Stiff said. Everybody who flies on the plane must first pass a thorough physical examination. The fliers also receive special emergency training, he said. Stiff said schools in Polson, Lockwood, Hardin, Pryor, Busby, Lame Deer, Ashland and Colstrip are learning about the low-gravity experiment. "We're hoping to generate a greater interest in science," he said. Tom Howard can be reached at 657-1261 or by e-mail at: thoward@billingsgazette.com.
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