About the episode
For people, movement affects our shape, but wouldn’t movement have an effect much earlier?
To find an answer to this question, researchers turned their attention to sea anemones. The animals seem to exercise like caterpillars. The load on the muscles must be absolutely correct, so that in the end you get the correct form.
We humans use our bones and muscles for exercise, but sea anemone larvae use a mixture of muscle tissue and water-filled spaces. Ironically, the researchers saw that larvae that exercise too vigorously develop very slowly and vice versa: if there is moderate exercise, the larvae develop faster. Although exercise is essential to get the muscles in shape, it only goes along with growth if the proportions are right.
It will now be interesting to see how there are different levels of sport in the first place and how exactly movement is transformed into growth. Also because many of our organs have tube-like structures and fluid flow plays a major role in their development.
Read more: Is exercise the driver of development? In sea anemones, the way they move matters.
