National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Lethal Bacteria Turn Deadlier After Space Travel


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Salmonella typhimurium bacteria (above), which often cause foodborne illness, mutate into even deadlier strains outside of Earth's atmosphere, a new study says.

In space, a mechanical force known as fluid shear—the motion of fluid around a cell—slows down.

In an experiment with mice, such changes caused genetic transformations that made Salmonella more fatal than Earth-restricted bacteria.

Photograph by Dennis Kunkel/Getty Images