Germs in Space

[mangxema]

From CNN:

Spoiler :

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into orbit on a spaceship and come back stronger and deadlier than ever.

The space shuttle Atlantis mission in September 2006 carried salmonella into space.

But it really happened.

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit in food poisoning.

The trip: Space shuttle mission STS-115, September 2006.

The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride.

The result: Mice that were fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick, and died more quickly, than mice fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.

"Wherever humans go, microbes go -- you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change," explained Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.

Nickerson added, in a telephone interview, that learning more about changes in germs has the potential to lead to novel new countermeasures for infectious disease.

She reports the results of the salmonella study in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers placed identical strains of salmonella in containers and sent one into space aboard the shuttle, while the second was kept on Earth, under similar temperature conditions to the one in space.

After the shuttle returned, mice were given varying oral doses of the salmonella and then were watched.

After 25 days, 40 percent of the mice given the earthbound salmonella were still alive, compared with just 10 percent of those dosed with the germs from space. And the researchers found the amount of bacteria it took to kill half the mice was three times larger for the normal salmonella than for the space germs.

The researchers found 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that went to space.

Why?

"That's the 64 million dollar question," Nickerson said. "We do not know with 100 percent certainty what the mechanism is of space flight that's inducing these changes."

However, they think it's a force called fluid shear.

"Being cultured in microgravity means the force of the liquid passing over the cells is low." The cells "are responding not to microgravity, but indirectly to microgravity in the low fluid shear effects."

"There are areas in the body which are low shear, such as the gastrointestinal tract, where, obviously, salmonella finds itself," she went on. "So, it's clear this is an environment not just relevant to space flight, but to conditions here on Earth, including in the infected host."

She said it is an example of a response to a changed environment.

"These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," she said.

The research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Louisiana Board of Regents, Arizona Proteomics Consortium, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, National Institutes of Health and the University of Arizona.

My question: Do you think this would affect space exploration? How?

 

[LucyDuke]

"These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," she said.

I found this wording very odd, coming from someone who's supposed to be some kind of expert.

 

[Brighteye]

Only the fittest would survive in space.
The rest wouldn't cook their food properly.

 

[Masquerouge]

I don't think it would affect space exploration. People who went in outer space are doing fine.

 

[Kozmos]

I want to see them carry the ebola or anthrax virus to space to see if it makes it any more deadlier.

 

[LucyDuke]

I want to see them carry the ebola or anthrax virus to space to see if it makes it any more deadlier.

Psst. Anthrax isn't a virus.

 

[Catharsis]

El threado duplicado!

 

[Alpha Killer II]

I heard a theory in a book germs might have actually came from space whenever the asteroids were pounding us...

 

[Stylesjl]

I heard a theory in a book germs might have actually came from space whenever the asteroids were pounding us...

Impossible. Theres no air or pressure in space (at least, nowhere near enough to support life of any kind) and the radiation from the sun would kill them anyway

 

[Mandeville]

Impossible. Theres no air or pressure in space (at least, nowhere near enough to support life of any kind) and the radiation from the sun would kill them anyway

lol. 10chars.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Impossible. Theres no air or pressure in space (at least, nowhere near enough to support life of any kind) and the radiation from the sun would kill them anyway

I think its a known fact (or at least its strongly suspected) that some microbes can survive in space.

 

[Kraznaya]

Sounds like the Andromeda Strain by Crichton...

 

[Verbose]

One of the Apollo mission left a camera on the moon. A year or so later another of these mission retrieved the camera. At this point the lens had gone strangely cloudy. As it turned out it was covered by a thin film of earthly bacteria which had managed to survive and even replicate, feeding on the lubricant in the camera. Bacteria can handle some pretty radical conditions, space even.

 

[El_Machinae]

That's pretty amazing. Do you have a credible source for that?

 

[bhsup]

That's pretty amazing. Do you have a credible source for that?

I found this link at NASA. Interesting quote...

"I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole...Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said [anything] about it."

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast01sep98_1.htm

 

[El_Machinae]

I don't see anything there about the organisms growing while on the Moon. Verbose is remembering that the camera was cloudy after it got back, maybe?

 

[bhsup]

Yeah, I found a few more articles about it and none of them talk about the lense filming over while on the moon. They all simply mention the bacteria surviving in the foam insulation, but nothing is mentioned about reproducing/multiplying. Mind you, I didn't find any that ruled out the bacteria multiplying while in space, or the lense filming over, I just found nothing to confirm it.

Still, quite a feat, and I stumbled upon another article about a bacteria being successfully revived after being trapped in resin with a bee for 25 million years. Almost makes me a smidge leery about trying to terraform Mars someday. Lord only knows what we'll revive. I still think it is a must, though, to aim for.

 

[Lillefix]

I heard a theory in a book germs might have actually came from space whenever the asteroids were pounding us...

It's not just virus that might have come from comets, but even life itself. Us. It's not as far fetched as it sounds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/beginnings/comet.shtml

 

[El_Machinae]

Still, quite a feat, and I stumbled upon another article about a bacteria being successfully revived after being trapped in resin with a bee for 25 million years. Almost makes me a smidge leery about trying to terraform Mars someday. Lord only knows what we'll revive. I still think it is a must, though, to aim for.

This is a common fear, but it's actually unnecessary. I only recently realised this, personally.

For a lifeform to be a dangerous disease is almost a co-evolution (or a species jump from something similar to us). If an organism evolved outside of us, then it's extremely unlikely that it will be able to have any effect upon our biology.

Every drop in the upper ocean has thousands of species that have never interacted with your body, but you'd never be really nervous about swimming.

A better example is the pouched mammals. Austrailian meat is much safer for humans than placental meats (i.e., cows) because very few of the parasites for kangaroos will have any effect on humans - they evolved to infect and survive in creatures rather evolutionarily diverse from us.

(you know I'm with you on the space development concept)

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Great White Sharks haven't evolved for millions of years either. That doesn't make them safe though!