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Astronauts carry trillions of cells that aren’t their own into space.  These cells are often harmless bacteria, but it turns out that microgravity, or the free falling weightlessness experienced by astronauts, can cause bacteria to do interesting things.  Some of these bacteria form better communities (biofilms) in space than on Earth.  This can be quite a problem for space station cleanliness and is a concern for the health of astronauts.  However, we study bacteria that perform a very useful task – they mine iron and other elements from rock.  We’re trying to see if our bacteria (Sphingomonas desiccabilis, Cupriavidus metallidurans, and Bacillus subtilis) also form better biofilms in space. We think better biofilms might improve bacterial mining.  This is all part of an experiment for the International Space Station called BIOROCK.  If we are right, we can start looking at using these bacteria for potential mining operations in space (asteroids!) or in life support systems that need element/ion scavenging.

Coffee is the essential start to my day.  Depending on how experiments are going, I’ll email our BIOROCK colleagues in Germany, Belgium and Denmark to update them and check on their experiments.  I do a lot of experiments in the lab that are getting BIOROCK ready to fly and I do a little teaching on a course with Physics undergraduates.

Every summer the UK Centre for Astrobiology holds an Astrobiology Summer Academy for teachers in Edinburgh that goes into what Astrobiology is and how to include Astrobiology lesson plans or activities in different parts of the science curriculum. This has drummed up a bit of interest in having some of our scientists come out to more schools in England and Scotland for classroom visits to do hands-on Astrobiology activities with students, but funds for visits are pretty limited.