Germs taken to space come back deadlier

Germs taken to space come back deadlier

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - 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 die...

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Wow, who needs germ labs! Just cultivate them in space and release them. A new generation (the last?) of biological warfare?

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Aww... you beat me to it!

Here's another source with more details:

Spaceflight shown to alter ability of bacteria to cause disease

Makes me wonder about the humans who go to space and what happens to the natural flora and fauna inside us all. Have we unknowingly been bringing altered bugs back and just been lucky?

Thanks for that other link! I think it is kind of crazy "liquid shear". It seems that would be reproducible in atmosphere without TOO much trouble. Will we see a resurgence of biowarfare testing? Cause really, I have always though space would be an ideal lab area as it would be very easy to quarantine if necessary.

My mind is still reeling over the potential consequences of this. I have a friend who is a phd (never mention the word antivirus to him unless you want him to burst a blood vessel ;-) ). He is checking further into this for me for the scientific credibility and I will report back here with his commentary.