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Saturday, November 9, 2013

RARE NEW MICROBE APPEARS IN SPACECRAFT CLEAN ROOM

A rare, recently discovered microbe that survives on very little to eat has been found in two places on Earth:  spacecraft clean rooms in Florida and South America.
 
Microbiologists often do thorough surveys of bacteria and other microbes in spacecraft clean rooms.   Fewer microbes live there than in almost any other environment on Earth, but the surveys are important for knowing what might hitch a ride into space.
 
If extraterrestrial life is ever found, it would be readily checked against the census of a few hundred types of microbes detected in spacecraft clean rooms.
 
Microbes that are tolerant of harsh conditions become more evident in clean room environments that remove the rest of the crowd.
 
The new bug's name
 
Its discoverers named it Tersicoccus phoenicis. Tersi is from Latin for clean, like the room. Coccus, from Greek for berry, describes the bacterium's shape.
 
The phoenicis part is for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, the spacecraft being prepared for launch in 2007 when the bacterium was first collected by test-swabbing the floor in the Florida clean room.

Read more - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131106162631.htm


More on microbes on this blog - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Microbes

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