Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: THE SPACE MOSQUITO

by Hazed

Now this is worrying news. Mosquitoes turn out to be a lot hardier than we thought. Apparently, one of them managed to live for 18 months clinging to the outside of the International Space Station. Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports that it survived despite having no food, being bombarded by radiation and enduring fluctuating temperatures that ranged from -230 to 140 degrees F.

Just what do you have to do to kill the little bugs?

The pest was part of a larger experiment in which various lifeforms, including bacteria, barley seeds, small crustaceans and larval insects were placed in a container strapped to the outside of the ISS.

"We brought him back to Earth. He is alive, and his feet are moving," Anatoly Grigoryev of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RIA Novosti. Let's hope the cosmic rays of space haven't caused him to mutate so he grows into a giant, unstoppable killing bug!

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