Salmonella in space

Astronaut health is under intense scrutiny during spaceflight owing to the unusual conditions they face – as exemplified in our recent coverage of snazzy new equipment to track health. Now, new research has uncovered the mechanism of bacterial infection in space. The results have implications not only for spaceflight, but also for infections back home. The new study follows previous research by the same group at Arizona State University (ASU; USA) that demonstrated that the conditions during spaceflight can intensify the virulence of pathogenic organisms such as Salmonella – a bacteria that has plagued humanity for eons, countering human defenses...