Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Earth Germs Become Space Germs!

Here's an interesting article on how Earth-born germs mutate upon being in orbit. A recent space crew brought the germ Salmonella ("ella- ella- a-a") with them into space and found that mice who were given the "space germ" were three times more likely to develop illness and die. Scientists aren't completely sure why this happens but remain optimistic that this might lead to new techniques and discoveries in fighting infectious diseases.

2 comments:

Greg said...

Isn't that the plot of numerous sci-fi horror films: the scientists takes diseases into space in order to study the effects of an space on them, the diseases turn into superbugs infecting the crew, they crash land back on Earth resulting in mass extinction? Didn't they watch "The Invasion"? Oh wait, no one watched that movie....

Dennis said...

I can't believe you're so cruel as to bring up that godforsaken song. Do you have any idea how much alcohol I had drink to forget about it? Now it's going to be stuck in my head all night.