Salmonella in Space

What are the 10 weirdest things ever sent into space, you ask? Ranker has the list ... and coming in at number 7 is something quite scary:

7. Salmonella

In September 2006, a space shuttle blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with tubes containing Salmonella typhimurium to see how space travel affected germs.

Upon return, after feeding the space germs to mice, scientists found that the microbes turned into super-bugs and became stronger and more deadly than ever. The mice were more likely to get sick and died quicker than others that were fed the identical germs that remained on Earth. They discovered that the genetic behavior had altered and became three times more potent. They were also more virulent and resistant to high temperatures, acidic conditions and white blood cells.

Find out about 9 more strange things humans have sent to space: Link - Thanks Nicole!

By the way, the super-virulence of salmonella is thought to be due to "fluid shear" tricking the bugs into thinking that it's already inside the intestines


I went to the Dorothy Hodgkin memorial lecture last year.. Elspeth Garman showed a few of the sensationalist newspaper clippings with titles like "Boffins send AIDS into space!" IIRC, her research group they were trying to grow crystals of HIV in microgravity in order to work out the protein structure.
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