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SpaceX's Next Launch Carries Colonies Of A Drug-Resistant Superbug (businessinsider.com.au)
An anonymous reader quotes Business Insider:
SpaceX is preparing to launch a lethal, antibiotic-resistant superbug into orbit...to live its days in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station. The idea is not to weaponize space with MRSA -- a bacterium that kills more Americans every year than HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's disease, emphysema, and homicide combined -- but to send its mutation rates into hyperdrive, allowing scientists to see the pathogen's next moves well before they appear on Earth. The NASA-funded study will see SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch colonies of MRSA into space, to be cultivated in the US National Laboratory on the International Space Station.
"We will leverage the microgravity environment on the ISS to accelerate the Precision Medicine revolution here on Earth," lead researcher Anita Goel, CEO of biotech company Nanobiosym, told Yahoo News... "Our ability to anticipate drug-resistant mutations with Gene-RADAR will lead to next generation antibiotics that are more precisely tailored to stop the spread of the world's most dangerous pathogens," says Goel.
That launch was scheduled for today, but SpaceX postponed it to "take a closer look at positioning of the second stage engine nozzle." [UPDATE: The launch was completed successfully on Sunday.] Two more externally-mounted payloads will conduct other experiments, with one monitoring lightning strikes on earth and the other measuring chemicals in the earth's atmosphere. In addition, there's also 21 science experiments that were submitted by high school students
Meanwhile, Slashdot reader tomhath brings news that researchers have discovered the red berries of a U.S. weed can help fight superbugs. The researchers found "extracts from the Brazilian peppertree, which traditional healers in the Amazon have used for hundreds of years to treat skin and soft-tissue infections, have the power to stop methicillin-resistant MRSA infections in mice." One of the researchers said the extract "weakens the bacteria so the mouse's own defenses work better."
"We will leverage the microgravity environment on the ISS to accelerate the Precision Medicine revolution here on Earth," lead researcher Anita Goel, CEO of biotech company Nanobiosym, told Yahoo News... "Our ability to anticipate drug-resistant mutations with Gene-RADAR will lead to next generation antibiotics that are more precisely tailored to stop the spread of the world's most dangerous pathogens," says Goel.
That launch was scheduled for today, but SpaceX postponed it to "take a closer look at positioning of the second stage engine nozzle." [UPDATE: The launch was completed successfully on Sunday.] Two more externally-mounted payloads will conduct other experiments, with one monitoring lightning strikes on earth and the other measuring chemicals in the earth's atmosphere. In addition, there's also 21 science experiments that were submitted by high school students
Meanwhile, Slashdot reader tomhath brings news that researchers have discovered the red berries of a U.S. weed can help fight superbugs. The researchers found "extracts from the Brazilian peppertree, which traditional healers in the Amazon have used for hundreds of years to treat skin and soft-tissue infections, have the power to stop methicillin-resistant MRSA infections in mice." One of the researchers said the extract "weakens the bacteria so the mouse's own defenses work better."
...in reruns. "Kill Zone", an episode of the original MacGyver. Although I wouldn't recommend the episode to anyone.
Simply put, it ends up like this episode of Star Trek TNG, but without a transporter to fix things in the end.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Given SpaceX history of detonating rockets, it seems like the probability of it becoming an efficient mechanism for distributing MRSA over the Earth's surface is not insignificant.
"extracts from the Brazilian peppertree, which traditional healers in the Amazon have used for hundreds of years to treat skin and soft-tissue infections, have the power to stop methicillin-resistant MRSA infections in mice."
There will be those who will cheer this by saying we should look at more plants (or weeds in this case) and do more extracts to try and find ways to help people, but on the other hand will vehemently oppose trying to extract anything from marijuana which might help people because then that's someone trying to make a profit off a plant.
Strains of bacteria defective for DNA repair enzymes have been used for years to accelerate lab studies of antibiotic resistance. There are even mutator strains of staph aureus that have been used for studies like this.
I mean, wasn't this the plot of numerous bad sci-fi movies back in the sixties and seventies? Oh, and at least one really good one.
...the sandwich on my plate to decelerate my hunger. After that I'm going to leverage the lever on my handlebar to leverage the deceleration of my bike.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
AI, robot cars, and now space irradiate deadly bacteria?! Elon musk is a god damned Bond villain.
The galaxy will thank us in a million years when its decendants conquer the universe ..
Trump conspires with Musk up to have the rocket explode over the Soviet Union.
what could possibly go wrong?
You don't need to send it to space to make it strong. Just give it more antibiotics, subject it to radiation, heat, cold, and the kitchen sink. This is why NASA is full of idiots
Stupidity happens!
so it must be possible. Movie writers are scientists.
Am I the only one thinking this is pointless, as far as the proposed reasoning for this experiment is concerned? My guess is that this is an experiment just to see what happens (like most other science experiments), but it was sold to the higher-ups responsible for funding this project (and possibly the general public) with easy-to-understand, but completely pointless premise. It's pointless for at least two reasons:
1) Mutations are *random*. There is no predetermined path that evolution will take place. Otherwise every isolated continent would have had the exact same set of animals/birds/insects/etc., as they all started from the same primordial slime. It's like looking at the previous lottery numbers to decide what to play in the next lottery. Completely pointless, but doesn't stop people from developing "strategies". The only thing you can predict is that the evolved bacteria will be different and will be better/fitter at surviving. How different and for what reason better/fitter -- there is no predicting that as there are literally billions upon billions of ways it can go.
2) Conditions in space will be quite different from down here. It's called "survival of the fittest". "Fittest" for the specific conditions we have down here. MRSA bacteria lives and survives in and around people. Moreover, it lives and survives in and around people treated with various antibiotics. Whatever will survive up there in space will be "fittest" for those conditions, and will likely be nothing like what we'll see in real hospitals. I mean, they might as well get a petri dish and take an X-ray of it every 10 minutes and see what happens, to get fast mutations. No need to send anything into space. Not for that reason.
Again, I'm not poopooing the experiment, I'm just saying I hope whoever is running it is not delusional. Or at least smarter than me. Or is it I? As you see, the bar is pretty low, so I'm hopeful. :)
For every single bacteria there are phages which easily would kill them. Instead of investing there which would be clever but less profitable for big pharma, you still go for the now almost completely useless and organs harming antibiotics. If I had the money, I would hugely invest in building up a bacteriophage specialized company.
How does this help anything? Wouldn't the spacefaring MRSA undergo different selection pressures compared to the MRSA living on some nursing home resident, and thereby have a different "next move?"
Will be when they get out, get dumped to save the crew, and then gain a resistance to re-entry.
Next thing we know even "kill it with fire" stops working
Make damn sure it's in an unbreakable container. Accidents do happen, and you don't want MRSA to get loose on the ISS!
It's already a super bug. Cosmic Ray mutations are redundant.
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the blob!
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Nonsense! Name one accident with a rocket in the last 6 months!!
Speaking of efficient distribution... Now big government and big pharma can create and spread their mind-control chemicals and diseases around the world than from orbit! AMIRITE?!?!? The conspiracy theorist blogs and fake news sites are going to use this stuff for years!