In Space, Infectious Diseases Reveal Their True Nature
When you think about what’s going on hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth at the International Space Station, you probably don’t think about salmonella. But it turns out that microgravity might reveal a thing or two about the nasty bacteria. Researcher Cheryl Nickerson took some salmonella up there to see what might happen, and what she found was quite surprising. Arizona State University writes:
During an earlier series of NASA space shuttle and ground-based experiments, Nickerson and her team made a startling discovery. Spaceflight culture increased the disease-causing potential (virulence) of the foodborne pathogen Salmonella, yet many of the genes known to be important for its virulence were not turned on and off as expected when this organism is grown on Earth. Understanding how this switching is regulated may be useful for designing targeted strategies to prevent infection.
In fact, the first time they brought salmonella to space and then came down, it returned three to seven times more virulent than the bug grown on the ground. NASA writes:
“We think space travel tricks Salmonella into behaving as if it is in the human gut,” Nickerson says. “It’s a mechanical phenomenon having to do with ‘fluid shear.’”
Basically, when salmonella move around, they can sense how strong the force of the fluid moving past them is. In the small intestine and stomach, that fluid is moving quickly. But if the salmonella can find its way to an alcove, a little nook in the wall of the intestine, that fluid shear goes way down. The salmonella can sense the change and picks that time to bloom. In space, fluid shear is extremely low. So the salmonella think they’re in their safe zone.
Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/02/in-space-infectious-diseases-reveal-their-true-nature/
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Iran sent a monkey into space recently! They are trying to build a bio-weapon! I saw that US intelligence had captured pictures of this new devastating new weapon:
