tag > Space
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Microbes in Space Mutated And Developed a Remarkable Ability
A box full of viruses and bacteria has completed its return trip to the International Space Station, and the changes these 'bugs' experienced in their travels could help us Earthlings tackle drug-resistant infections.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and US biotech company Rhodium Scientific Inc. pitted Escherichia coli bacteria against its viral arch-nemesis, the T7 bacteriophage. This pair has been locked in an evolutionary 'arms race' for as long as we've been looking, but never in microgravity – until they were sent to the ISS in 2020.
Scientists aboard the space station incubated different combinations of bacteria and phages for 25 days, while the research team led by biochemist Vatsan Raman carried out the same experiments in Madison, down here on Earth.
"Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth," the researchers explain.
In the weightlessness of space, bacteria acquired mutations in genes involved in the microbe's stress response and nutrient management. Their surface proteins also changed. After a slow start, the phages mutated in response, so they could continue binding to their victims.
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The team found that certain space-specific phage mutations were especially effective at killing Earth-bound bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections (UTIs). More than 90 percent of the bacteria responsible for UTIs are antibiotic-resistant, making phage treatments a promising alternative.
"By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth," the researchers say.
The research was published in PLOS Biology.
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Vast, interconnected networks of galactic plasma filaments are among the largest structures in the universe - and we are only beginning to understand them.
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A lunar eclipse over the pyramids of Egypt.
The Wands of Horus and Dr. Valery Uvarov on the significance of Pyramids and Pyramid Energy comes to mind.
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An incredible "gigantic jet" – an extremely-rare type of upper-atmospheric lightning – was photographed from the International Space Station on Friday morning.
This is the clearest photo we have EVER seen of a gigantic jet from above.
Nichole Rhea Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and a NASA astronaut. She launched to the International Space Station as a pilot of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission on March 14, and will be returning to Earth soon.
On Thursday morning, July3, she captured an unbelievable photo of an ultra-rare GIANT JET. The International Space Station was over Mexico and the southern U.S. at the time.
It looks like the instigating thunderstorm was happening somewhere near Sabinas in Coahuila, Mexico around 1:30 a.m. Central time Thursday.
Gigantic jets are a subset of “blue jets,” which themselves are a type of TLE — or transient luminous event, often referred to as “upper-atmospheric lightning.” There are different types of TLEs, including red “sprites,” green “elves” and blue jets.
Blue jets are the rarest. Elves and sprites occur high above thunderstorms, but jets bridge a key gap between a thunderstorm and the stratosphere high above. Sometimes they even reach up to the base of the mesosphere — the height at which meteors burn up!
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If Earth’s economy stresses you out, wait until you learn about interplanetary economics. Tariffs? Trade wars? Try terraforming inflation, asteroid taxation and black markets for sunlight.
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Extend your senses and be amazed: My surveillance cameras with AI anomaly detection are paying off. Caught a meteor on camera last night.
My surveillance cameras with AI anomaly detection flagged this at 2:37 AM last night. It couldn’t classify it. What is it?
"Extend your senses and be amazed." That’s the theme of this experiment—turning cheap cameras and off-the-shelf ML models into a DIY surveillance network. The barrier to entry? Lower than ever. The possibilities? Endless. Want to see how it’s done? 👀
