NASA will map every living thing on the International Space StationThis effort at a space-based ...
(WorldNews Environment)

Astronauts never travel to space alone. Each person voyaging off-world is accompanied by up to 100 trillion bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms, any number of which could jeopardize human health. Yet we are still mostly in the dark about how these communities of microscopic hitchhikers react to microgravity. We do not even know the full spectrum of spacefaring species living onboard the International Space Station (ISS). New studies, however, are designed to change that. Last month astronauts collected samples from across the interior of the ISS to build an unprecedented three-dimensional map of its microbiome. This effort at a space-based microbial census is the first step toward...