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Characterization of bacteria and fungi associated with the ISS' surfaces (2019)
- Chris2048 5y agoAt first I thought this was going to be a real revelation, then I realised they mean internal surfaces.. oh well..
- adolph 5y agoThe dominant organisms are associated with the human microbiome and may include opportunistic pathogens. An interesting part of The Martian book was the development and maintenance of soil biota. Human microbiome seems to be a thing of active research and relative ignorance. I think it will be a critical knowledge domain for people living off-Earth for long periods both in terms of pathology and health.
- teej 5y agoOur bodies act as generation ships for our micro biome to explore the stars.
- echelon 5y agoThat's a beautiful analogy.
- poetaster 5y agoThere's a Baxter novel in that line!
- KineticLensman 5y agoIt's very, very approximately the basis of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, although that book (very minor spoiler) involves earth organisms planted on alien planets being evolved / uplifted by tailored genetic packages.
- carapace 5y agoReminds me of one of my favorite microbes, tersicoccus phoenicis which is "only known to exist at two locations on Earth, and were independently found in geographically separated clean room facilities nearly 4,000 km (2,500 mi) apart." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tersicoccus_phoenicis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tersicoccus_phoenicis https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rare-new-microbe-found-in-two-distant-clean-rooms https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rare-new-microbe-found-in-two-...
- sandworm101 5y ago>> this species may exist naturally outside of the clean room environment Or these aliens experience time differently than us and have in fact traveled back from space on the various probes that used these clean rooms.
- verisimi 5y agoWhy no viruses?