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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."
Just wait for the "concerned" special interest groups to claim that it's unnatural and that selling the resulting product should be banned.
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
When it comes down to it, if food products are larger but do not provide additional "food value" to go with the size, the only benefit would be for those trying to lose weight, since there is less food "value" for a given mass. 1000 calories of something grown in space may take up more room, but it is still only 1000 calories worth of food. Now, if you take a plant that on Earth provides 1000 calories and when grown in space it provides 1500 calories, THEN that would be worth looking at.
The Russians are thinking about a 2.0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Piloted_Assembly_and_Experiment_Complex
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
As we all know, there is no spinoffs. Ever, all data is useless. How ignorant.
Om, nomnomnom...
When it comes down to it, if food products are larger but do not provide additional "food value" to go with the size, the only benefit would be for those trying to lose weight, since there is less food "value" for a given mass. 1000 calories of something grown in space may take up more room, but it is still only 1000 calories worth of food. Now, if you take a plant that on Earth provides 1000 calories and when grown in space it provides 1500 calories, THEN that would be worth looking at.
A reciprocal argument can be made about mass-farmed food on Earth. Generally the calorie content is higher in industrially farmed foods while the nutrient content is lower. Therefore it's a problem for those looking to lose weight because getting the required calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, etc. are diluted relative to the calories that come along with them. Furthermore, since grains (the source ofproblematic omega-6 fatty acids) replace leaves (the source of important omega-3 fatty acids) in industrial meat farming, some important nutrients are very difficult to consume regardless of the amount of calories consumed. Supplemental nutrients are often added to make up for these deficiencies, but considering that nutritionists have only vague ideas of which nutrients matter, whether quantity or ratio matter, or whether seemingly unimportant chemicals are necessary to properly utilize the nutrients that we know are important, this doesn't have a reliable effect.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Yeah! I mean, really, who uses vaccines? And there is plenty of food on earth for everyone forevermore why are they wasting there time with enhanced growing techniques? And I see they are working on a targeted cancer treatment. Hah! Cancer is so 90s. New solar cells? What?!!!1!1 I've seen the commercial, America has "LOTS of oil." These experiments are such a waste of time. Why don't they just find a spot of microgravity on earth and do the experiments there? Why do they have to go all the way up to space? I don't understand any of this, obviously, that means this is all worthless.