Characterization of bacteria and fungi associated with the ISS' surfaces (2019) | Hacker News Reader

Characterization of bacteria and fungi associated with the ISS' surfaces (2019)

microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com

44 pointsareoform12 comments

Reminds me of one of my favorite microbes, tersicoccus phoenicis which is "only known to exist at two locations on Earth, and were independently found in geographically separated clean room facilities nearly 4,000 km (2,500 mi) apart."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tersicoccus_phoenicis

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rare-new-microbe-found-in-two-...

>> this species may exist naturally outside of the clean room environment

Or these aliens experience time differently than us and have in fact traveled back from space on the various probes that used these clean rooms.

The dominant organisms are associated with the human microbiome and may include opportunistic pathogens.

An interesting part of The Martian book was the development and maintenance of soil biota. Human microbiome seems to be a thing of active research and relative ignorance. I think it will be a critical knowledge domain for people living off-Earth for long periods both in terms of pathology and health.

Our bodies act as generation ships for our micro biome to explore the stars.

That's a beautiful analogy.

There's a Baxter novel in that line!

It's very, very approximately the basis of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, although that book (very minor spoiler) involves earth organisms planted on alien planets being evolved / uplifted by tailored genetic packages.

At first I thought this was going to be a real revelation, then I realised they mean internal surfaces.. oh well..

Why no viruses?

Viruses cannot replicate independently of host cells, so they cannot "live" on surfaces, and they cannot be grown independently in culture.

But bacteria and fungi can live in space?

Well, they can live on surfaces _inside_ the space station.

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