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Tehrantimes.com - Russian scientific research satellite returns to Earth

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Russian scientific research satellite returns to Earth


MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's Photon scientific research satellite, laden with lizards, snails and scorpions, landed safely in the Kazakh steppes, Russian mission control said.

The satellite conducted various chemistry, physics and biotechnology experiments for 16 days in orbit, and carried living organisms to see how stress and weightlessness affected them, scientists quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency said.

"Calcium circulation in lizards is very close to that of humans, and studying the changes effected in these animals in weightlessness will let us decrypt problems with calcium circulation in humans," deputy chief of Russia's medical-biological problems institute, Yevgeny Ilyin, said.

Tritons, molluscs which were also part of the satellite's cargo, would help scientists understand mechanisms of regeneration.

Other experiments were aimed at getting ultra-clear medicine for treating various viruses, cancer and HIV