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Microgravity Can Permanently Mutate Bacteria And Make Them Faster Breeders (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 year ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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[–] StubbornCassette8@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not a biologist. The only context I have regarding rapid cellular reproduction in space is the 2017 movie "Life" where a fictional alien implies doom for humanity and all of Earth as we know it.

Are there any positives to this news? My understanding is that multi-celled organisms have a hard time repairing themselves in microgravity; bones in particular being affected among other processes. Hoping the research being conducted here helps advance medicine on that front.

I can only imagine what having the runs is like in space. Super powered E. coli coursing through your gut sounds extra....you know 💩

[–] cnnrduncan@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Could potentially be used to create better strains of "good bacteria" such as the extremely important ones that make up the human gut microbiome. I could see it maybe being useful for the development of antibiotics and vaccines too!