Underground lab tests cosmic rays and DNA aging

Radiation surrounds us constantly, most of it invisible and unfelt. Part of it consists of muons: tiny particles produced when cosmic rays collide with the atmosphere. They penetrate nearly everything, including our cells and DNA. Scientists have long wondered whether this background radiation contributes to the accumulation of DNA damage that characterizes aging.

A laboratory carved into rock

A perspective article in the journal Aging and Disease proposes investigating this in a deep underground laboratory (DUL). Built originally for particle physics, these facilities allow very few muons to reach experiments. The researchers want to compare two groups of cells: one grown above ground, one in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc in Spain, with all other conditions identical. In principle, this would allow measurement of how much epigenetic aging (measurable changes in which genes are switched on or off, independent of the DNA sequence itself) can be attributed to muon exposure.

Earlier work with fruit flies in such labs yielded a surprising result: their DNA repair mechanisms became less active without the usual background radiation. That suggests low-level radiation may actually sharpen biological repair processes. But that is a different question from what the new experiment aims to measure.

Modest expectations, sharp questions

The researchers do not expect muon radiation to be a dominant cause of aging. Internal processes like oxidative stress and enzymatic errors likely play a larger role. The goal is to quantify a specific contribution that has never been isolated and measured before. If the muon contribution turns out to be negligible, that too is a valuable result. This remains a proposal, not a completed study.

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