................................. To leave Commie, hyper to http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html .................................
http://www.space.com/news/spacestation/space_fungus_000727.html ' "All the space microorganisms found inside spaceships originated on Earth," she said. "Most of them got into spacecraft on Earth and some of them were brought aboard with the visiting crews. So, you would expect them to behave like 'normal' Earthly fungi and bacteria." This is not the case, however. Microorganisms in space significantly mutate. One of the reasons for their mutation could be the level of radiation on Mir, which is 500 times more intense than on Earth. "Fungi and bacteria are dormant for a number of years and than suddenly become active. Then they may become passive again, but overall their aggressiveness exceeds this of the same type of microorganisms on Earth," said Novikova. "We don't know what triggers their activation in space," Novikova said. "Based on some observations we can say that the older the plastic is, the more likely it will be used by microorganisms as their feeding ground. They also become more aggressive after the increase of solar activity." Storing fungi All the samples of space-grown microorganisms brought back to Earth are kept at IBMP in sealed ampoules stored in safe places. "We don't know how they will behave if they get back into regular Earth conditions," Novikova said. There is one more reason, however, for keeping space mutants in specially secured places. "If you take a space-grown microorganism which used metal as a part of its habitat and keep cultivating it by increasing the content of metal in its habitat, you can potentially get a destructive biological weapon which will literally 'eat' arms," said Novikova. (...) (...) even the most effective disinfecting measures, like filling spacecraft with an extremely toxic gas mixture, do not kill all the fungi and bacteria. "Microorganisms get inside plastic where this mixture cannot reach them. Than at some point during flight, the contaminated plastic just emits its inhabitants into the station's atmosphere," said Novikova. ' ...... ---> jab | commie | http://commie.oy.com "Less is moo." - The Holy Mad Cow
