Astronauts are known for eating not the freshest foods and while their diets consist of more than freeze dried neapolitan ice cream, growing food in space is going to be key to humanity colonizing other planets. However, a new study has found some troubling news about the healthsomeness of greens grown in space.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:04 Astronauts are known for eating not the freshest foods.
00:07 And while their diets consist of more than just freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream,
00:10 growing food in space is going to be key to humanity colonizing other planets.
00:15 However, a new study has found some troubling news about the healthlessness of greens grown in space.
00:20 According to researchers from the University of Delaware,
00:23 leafy plants grown in simulated microgravity are more likely to harbor Salmonella bacteria.
00:28 The ISS was already found to be a capsule full of fungi and bacteria as diverse as anywhere on Earth.
00:33 Meaning the discovery of Salmonella on plants grown in similar conditions
00:36 means it's also possible to happen up there.
00:39 A dangerous notion since medical care could be weeks, if not months away.
00:43 So why is lettuce more susceptible to bacteria in microgravity?
00:46 Well, the researchers found that when the leaves of the plants were in that state of weightlessness,
00:49 their stomata pores would open.
00:51 These are usually used to keep dangerous bacteria out.
00:54 Meaning the state of microgravity disables this ability somehow.
00:57 With the researchers saying about their findings,
00:59 "The fact that the stomata were remaining open when we were presenting them
01:03 with what would appear to be a stress was really unexpected.
01:05 It is important to better understand how bacterial pathogens react to microgravity
01:10 in order to develop appropriate mitigation strategies."
01:13 [music]