Huge ISS Science Report Released

Earthquake Retrofit writes "NASA has released an extensive report (PDF) on science results from over 100 experiments performed at the International Space Station. From the summary: 'One of the most compelling results reported is the confirmation that the ability of common germs to cause disease increases during spaceflight, but that changing the growth environment of the bacteria can control this virulence. The Effect of Spaceflight on Microbial Gene Expression and Virulence experiment identified increased virulence of space-flown Salmonella typhimurium, a leading cause of food poisoning. New research on subsequent station missions will target development of a vaccine for this widespread malady." I can't tell if this is good news, bad, or both. Also from a quick look at the report, I see that soybeans grow bigger in space with no harmful effect."

Comments

billions for the obvious

[cinnamon colbert]

we have spent, order of magnitude, about a gazillion dollars to find out that...germs still work in space, but are a little different.
I will go out and buy a hat to eat if any professional biologists are at all surprised by this.
Typical of the socalled "science" of space: like fusion power, more a welfare program then science; I bet if we had taken all that money, printed one dollar bills and then burnt them, the knowledge about how to recycle paper would be more valuable then everything from the space station.
I wonder if there are enough people employed in these makework programs that it actually makes a difference in the national underemployment figures