4 ms·

The evidence seems super speculative to me. Is there anything else to corroborate this?

marshray 8y ago
Fine dust gets lofted high in the atmosphere. Some bacteria can handle being dried out for long periods and act as fine particles. As I recall, one of the victims of the anthrax terror attacks was a woman who lived several miles downwind of an affected Post Office. But good for these researchers for working out the details, and I'm sure there's a lot more in the paper that didn't make it into the article.
- steve19 8y ago
  Is one bacteria landing on your tongue, being sucked up your nose or inhaled into your lungs going to do anything? Are there any bacteria and virus that can kill with just one making contact?
  - k_sze 8y ago
    It’s called “infectious dose”, and it’s largely about probabilities. See this question that I asked a while ago (and associated answers) on Biology SE: https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5442/are-all-known-germs-benign-in-small-enough-quantities-i-e-why-do-we-wash-our-h https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5442/are-all-kno... EDIT: added missing URL.
    - Symmetry 8y ago
      Apparently for Anthrax the LD1, the dose expected to kill 1% of the population exposed to it, is just 1 to 3 spores. So it's possisble that woman downwind of the post office might have just inhaled a single spore. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/anthrax http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/anthrax
ddebernardy 8y ago
As I understood it, Caribbean sand comes from the Sahara, and basically gets flown in as dust across the Atlantic.
- Retric 8y ago
  Bacteria are a different beast as UV radiation kills them vary easily. The odds of surviving a single day at altitude is fairly low. Combined with a low probability of reaching that altitude, let alone coming into contact with an viable host after such a journey push this into extreme territory.
  - exhilaration 8y ago
    What about traveling at night? No UV then.
    - Retric 8y ago
      Wind is generally not fast enough to travel thousands of miles over 10ish hours.
  - ddebernardy 8y ago
    Plenty of bacteria have survived going into LEO in recent decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_in_outer_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_...
    - Retric 8y ago
      Not the same thing. Those are generally protected from direct exposure to sunlight. That said some bacteria are reasonably resistant to UV. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483449/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483449/
      - ddebernardy 8y ago
        As I understood these were actually bacteria that were observed to have survived being in space, as in on the external surface of satellites and shuttles, or extreme-like conditions. One problem related to detecting life on other planets is that a number of bacteria are suspected to be able to survive the whole trip to whichever planet or space object we send a probe to. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/bacteria-in-space/520908/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/bacteria...

Fine dust gets lofted high in the atmosphere. Some bacteria can handle being dried out for long periods and act as fine particles. As I recall, one of the victims of the anthrax terror attacks was a woman who lived several miles downwind of an affected Post Office. But good for these researchers for working out the details, and I'm sure there's a lot more in the paper that didn't make it into the article.

steve19 8y ago
Is one bacteria landing on your tongue, being sucked up your nose or inhaled into your lungs going to do anything? Are there any bacteria and virus that can kill with just one making contact?
- k_sze 8y ago
  It’s called “infectious dose”, and it’s largely about probabilities. See this question that I asked a while ago (and associated answers) on Biology SE: https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5442/are-all-known-germs-benign-in-small-enough-quantities-i-e-why-do-we-wash-our-h https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/5442/are-all-kno... EDIT: added missing URL.
  - Symmetry 8y ago
    Apparently for Anthrax the LD1, the dose expected to kill 1% of the population exposed to it, is just 1 to 3 spores. So it's possisble that woman downwind of the post office might have just inhaled a single spore. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/anthrax http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/anthrax

ddebernardy 8y ago

As I understood it, Caribbean sand comes from the Sahara, and basically gets flown in as dust across the Atlantic.

Retric 8y ago
Bacteria are a different beast as UV radiation kills them vary easily. The odds of surviving a single day at altitude is fairly low. Combined with a low probability of reaching that altitude, let alone coming into contact with an viable host after such a journey push this into extreme territory.
- exhilaration 8y ago
  What about traveling at night? No UV then.
  - Retric 8y ago
    Wind is generally not fast enough to travel thousands of miles over 10ish hours.
- ddebernardy 8y ago
  Plenty of bacteria have survived going into LEO in recent decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_in_outer_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_microorganisms_tested_...
  - Retric 8y ago
    Not the same thing. Those are generally protected from direct exposure to sunlight. That said some bacteria are reasonably resistant to UV. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483449/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483449/
    - ddebernardy 8y ago
      As I understood these were actually bacteria that were observed to have survived being in space, as in on the external surface of satellites and shuttles, or extreme-like conditions. One problem related to detecting life on other planets is that a number of bacteria are suspected to be able to survive the whole trip to whichever planet or space object we send a probe to. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/bacteria-in-space/520908/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/bacteria...