Results from an odd test run by the space shuttle Atlantis in 2006 are showing that some Salmonella typhimurium bacteria that the astronauts took up with them (on purpose) grew deadlier faster than the same strain back home at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The data suggest that the lack of gravity changed how the bug's genes created proteins. Experiment head Cheryl Nickerson of Arizona State told Discovery News, "This particular pathogen is doing things differently than the way it does when we grow it in the lab. Spaceflight profoundly changed the response of the salmonella."
So if you're going into space, be a good astronaut and check all your food for infections. Space travel tends to dampen the human immune system anyway, so carrying a latent superbug around isn't so hot a plan.
Salmonella invades a human cell – but, no, the bacteria are not actually pink. This black and white slide has been colored. (Credit: NIH)
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You wouldn’t know it from her expression, but Dr. Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper is stirring a pot of terrible, bacterial death. (Credit: NASA)