A science blog with Eric Berger

Bacteria turn deadlier in space. What about babies?


The big news today is that Salmonella bacteria shot into space last summer came home three times as deadly. Scientists had expected this because ground-based experiments suggested the zero-gravity environment of space might increase virulence.


Would a space-born baby survive?

But it’s fascinating all the same.

All life that we know of evolved in one Earth gravity. We’ve already seen what effect spaceflight has on human bones, muscles and the immune system (it weakens all of them). Now we’re seeing that it has a striking effect even on the smallest of living things.

Perhaps the coolest part of the new research is that it pinpoints the changes in Salmonella down to the genetic level, finding that microgravity caused the bacteria to express (turn on/off) 167 different genes than bacteria that were kept on the ground. These genetic changes increased the virulence of the bacteria.

While reporting the story, Jeanne Becker at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute told me about an earlier space experiment during which astronauts grew human kidney cells on orbit. Those cells expressed a remarkable 1,600 different genes than the Earth-grown variety.

All of this leads me to an intriguing question. If genes express differently in space, what will happen if (when, really) a baby is conceived in space? How about a newborn’s development? I can see this becoming a huge moral question some day, especially with the radically different gene expression.

A space baby would very likely be something that’s virtually non-human, if he or she survived at all.

Categories: Genetics, Space
Eric Berger

51 Responses

  1. ttyler5 says:


    ” …a really expensive way to have fresh omellets….”

    Oh, Hunter-san, humble servant not think so!

    Device fix eggs with chemical at diverse stages of embryonic development!

    Not so tasty and probabrary lethal!

    ” …results? ”

    Firstly, here’s a more detailed description of the the device:

    ” Experiment Operations

    ” The Avian Development Facility (ADF) was designed for Japanese quail eggs and houses 36 egg holders. The egg holders have been designed to isolate the eggs from vibration, thus minimizing any launch and re-entry effects to the developing embryos.

    ” Egg holders are mounted on two rotating centrifuges that can provide both microgravity and variable gravity environments (up to 1-g – normal Earth gravity).

    ” The avian facility offers pre-programmable control of the interior environmental temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), and oxygen (O2) concentration thus providing optimal conditions for embryo development.

    ” Additionally, it has an automated system that can be programmed to add a chemical fixative to the egg ,which stops the development process and preserves the embryo, at specific times during incubation.

    ” The ADF also rotates eggs – similar to the turning in a natural environment. Temperature can be maintained within +/- .05 degree Celsius of the set point between the range of 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). The relative humidity can be maintained within +/- 7.5% of the set point between the range 50 and 70 percent.

    ” The Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide levels are actively controlled to the set points defined by the researcher and the range of centrifugal force provided by the carousels is 0 to 1-g (in 0.1-g increments).

    ” The ADF fits into a middeck locker on the Orbiter, making it easily accessible prior to launch and after landing.”