Egyptian scorpions in American space mission
Egypt-USA, Local, 1/27/2007
Sixteen Egyptian scorpions will be dispatched to space next year on an American spaceship as experiment insects to study how the biological hour is affected in zero gravitation.

The set of scorpions will stay for three months in space in a scientific mission supervised by two German professors and Egyptian Alaudin Sallam, professor of Animal Physiology in Qanat Al-Suez University.

"Egyptian scorpions are ideal experiment insects in the biological hour studies," Sallam told Al-Ahram newspaper Friday.

"They can withstand difficult travel circumstances and remain without food for months thanks to its desert environment," he added.

Last year, Egyptian scorpions were used in a 16-day space mission on a Russian spaceship.