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Bacteria More Virulent in Microgravity
Tortured Potato writes "Did you know that salmonella become more virulent in simulated microgravity? No one's sure why, either. Professor Cheryl Nickerson of Tulane University is hoping to find out why when an experiment with brewer's yeast gets sent up on a Russian Progress rocket to the Space Station next year."
Would it's ability to be more virulent possibly come from it's relative ease of travel with no gravity? Like somehow gravity 'slows' the virus down when it's on the planet or something...ok...this is where i trail off...
Go gentle on me.
May I be the first to volunteer to test the Brewers Yeast in space. Preferably in its fermented liquid state. I am especially interested if the space trip is free (as in Beer).
Ernie Dambach
"It is no small thing to celebrate a simple life -Tolkien
Soon the biggest occupant of near space will be giant breweries, with giant pipes connecting them to the ground to feed beer-lovers all over the world.
Anyone care to enlighten me as to what "Modeled Microgravity" is exactly? How do you simulate u-G?
Just wondering...
I can't help myself....
From m-w.com:
Main Entry: virulent
Pronunciation: -l&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin virulentus, from viruspoison
Date: 14th century
1 a : marked by a rapid, severe, and malignant course b : able to overcome bodily defensive mechanisms
2 : extremely poisonous or venomous
3 : full of malice : MALIGNANT
4 : objectionably harsh or strong
- virulently adverb
Virulent, as applied to bacteria, refers to its propensity to a) multiply quickly b) infect a host efficiently and c) cause deleterious effects. It has nothing to do with that other "virulentas"-derived word, "virus" beyond sounding the same and sharing an etymological root.
There is no ambiguity or incorrectness in referring to a bacteria (or bacterial disease) as "virulent." It is, in fact, a very specific and technically correct term. (eg, one can and must talk about virulent vs benign strains of E. coli).
All that being said, you are dead right that the mean lay understanding of basic bio is woeful, though I would suggest that perhaps we need a Feynman, not an Asimov, but beggars can't be choosers, right?