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posted by martyb on Friday September 15 2017, @05:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the Microbiomes-R-Us dept.

From the original article appearing in the journal frontiers in Microbiology, Phenotypic Changes Exhibited by E. coli Cultured in Space (https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01598):

By default, bacteria will accompany humans in our exploration of space. The average healthy individual carries trillions of microorganisms in and on their body, outnumbering human cells (Sender et al., 2016). This human microbiome includes opportunistic pathogens, microbes that do not normally cause disease in a healthy person but can provoke an infection when the person's immune system is suppressed, a concern known to occur during spaceflight (Borchers et al., 2002; Mermel, 2013). It is therefore important to understand bacterial behavior in space in preparation for future long-term human space exploration missions. Numerous prior studies performed in space have shown increased bacterial virulence and decreased susceptibility to antibiotics for select in vitro cultures with respect to Earth controls ...

Turns out that E. coli grew better in space, even while bathed in an antibiotic.

The Gizmodo take is a bit alarmist, but the research suggests that poor diffusion of nutrients may be the biggest factor in why the bugs behave differently.

If you want to despoil another world, we have to worry about having more mouths to feed. Not just one mouth, maybe 10 trillion. They are coming along for the ride. Will our lunar and martian colonies fail due to indigestion?


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  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday September 15 2017, @06:15PM (1 child)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Friday September 15 2017, @06:15PM (#568597)

    There seem to be a few studies out that indicate "human biology needs gravity". Has the solution not already been established - spin spaceships to make artificial gravity? Why is this not a standard thing now?

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @07:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @07:15PM (#568639)

    Because the standard thing now is more about keeping the gravy train going and less about science and progress.

    Just look at the number of people (including NASA) talking about spending billions to put humans on Mars but somehow not wanting to spend money on testing to see if humans and popular livestock will do OK at Mars gravity levels. We know the effects of zero G on humans and animals but we haven't much data on in between zero G and 1G.

    Stuff like this would have been a start but was cancelled:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]

    The Centrifuge Accommodations Module (CAM) is a cancelled element of the International Space Station.

    It was cancelled in 2005[2] alongside the Habitation Module and the Crew Return Vehicle, because of ISS cost overruns and scheduling problems in Shuttle assembly flights.

    Scientists already know of various ways of doing artificial gravity - as you mentioned spinning spaceships or a section is one, swinging it with tethers is another. They just haven't done that much real testing with animals and humans.