Germs Taken to Space Come Back Deadlier

[lovuian]

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/G/GERMS_IN_SPACE?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-09-24-15-11-50

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. Except, it really happened.

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle 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 fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others 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.
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Our tax dollars hard at work making deadly outer space germs

so we can find cures

for deadly outer space germs

its just a typical day in America :patriot:

[xchrom]

1. i believe in space exploration on the one hand -- but on the other

i really want more money spent on things here.

fresh water

clean air

health care

more hospitals where they need them

this just reminds how in some ways -- we're not prepared yet for space.

[Der Blaue Engel]

2. I guess this is my day to be contrary, but I think it's an important study

The more we learn about infectious disease, the better. This is what researchers do; they research. We should be funding more of it.

[MrCoffee]

3. .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jeremy Stone: According to this there'll be a super-colony of Andromeda over the entire southwest in...
Dr. Charles Dutton: Jeremy! These are biological *warfare* maps!
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Why, yes... so they are... uh... but... Simulations, Charlie. Defensive... it's just a scenario.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: That's not the POINT for God's sake! Wildfire was built for germ warfare! Wildfire AND Scoop! And you knew, Stone! YOU KNEW IT!
Dr. Jeremy Stone: That's not true Ruth! I learned about Scoop the same time you did!
Dr. Charles Dutton: They already have Andromeda programmed! The purpose of Scoop was to find new biological weapons in outer space, and then use Wildfire to develop them!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: It STINKS, Stone!
Dr. Jeremy Stone: You're blowing yout tops! We have no proof...
Dr. Charles Dutton: The MAP!
Dr. Jeremy Stone: DON'T BE AN ASS! That map only shows what Andromeda *could* do in the hands of an enemy!
Dr. Charles Dutton: Enemy? We did it to OURSELVES!

[japple]

4. What about that recent "meteorite" that crashed in

a rural area of Peru, causing many people to become violently sick. Someone recently sent me a film clip where a space engineer was describing how they dispose of human waste that is generated during space missions. He said that it is sucked into containers that are exposed to zero gravity, which destroys all of the toxins and basically freeze dries it, then it is released into space where it burns up. He said that sometimes when you see a shooting star, it might just be "space waste." I hate being so cynical and suspicious about everything.

[3waygeek]

5. Close but not quite...

turns out the Peruvians got sick from arsenic fumes from vaporized ground water.