National Review blows its cork over NASA's Bolden

On 7/11/2010 2:06 AM, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 7/10/2010 7:22 PM, John Park wrote:
Don't forget, in this case, lower g is associated with a bit more
ionising
radiation. Could we be talking about simple mutations?

According to this, salmonella is constantly mutating anyway;
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/0...cine-in-works/
So how can you tell if the space salmonella mutations are due to zero-G,
radiation, or just naturally occurring mutations in the particular
colony of salmonella you took into orbit?
I would expect the salmonella to behave a bit differently under space
growth conditions, the part I have trouble with is it suddenly turning
into some sort of super-bug.
This reminds me of the old Mir Giant Space Worm story, where it sounded
like the space station was infested with the Andromeda Strain:
http://www.anomalist.com/reports/mir.html

For real fun, read the message form from the people who own stock in
Astrotech:
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/ASTC

Pat

On Jul 6, 8:53*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
As if Michael Steele wasn't bad enough, now another black man is
cuddling up to the enemies of Israel:http://corner.nationalreview.com/pos...Q4NjM4MTUwN2Rl...

Pat

If there's still no spare public loot on the horizon (only trillions
in debt and worse things to come), how the hell are all those physics
and scientific research grants plus all of them cushy government jobs
with terrific benefits and COL insurance going to get paid?

As long as we keep ****ing off Muslims and a few others we've either
used and discarded or having simply banished into abject sweatshop
poverty, there's going to be war upon war or perhaps worse
consequences.

~ BG

Pat Flannery wrote:
My favorite is still the flu germs that get carried from Venus to Earth
on the solar wind: http://www.datasync.com/~rsf1/vel/1918.htm
In short, flu as a venereal disease. ;-)

Pat

Well a Venus fly-by atmospheric sample return mission ought to help resolve
this issue. Or if you think the stakes too high ala Andromeda Strain and
'Project Scoop' then send a satellite that can culture bacteria and viruses of
atmospheric samples taken while in-orbit around Venus.

However, the 'venereal disease' ;-) argument isn't helped by the fact that the
link above includes a reference to Velikovsky.

It'd be very interesting biology as to why Venus would be a good breeding
ground for Earth contagions.

Dave

Pat Flannery wrote:
Until I read that zero-G is more like the inside of our intestines than
most earth medical labs can simulate, I had no idea that our innards
were coated with Cavorite. :-D

Pat

I've been to plenty of restaurants where the after effects I swear, we're
the same as if the food contained Cavorite. And I *do* plan to avoid
that London restaurant where the salads served (or was it the Pepper shaker?)
in some rare cases appear to contain Polonium*.

Dave

Note to self: Avoid restaurants where the pepper shakers are stored in
hexagonal arrays....

In article tatelephone,
Pat Flannery wrote:
On 7/9/2010 7:49 AM, Craig Bingman wrote:
In ,
Brian wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:28:12 -0800, Pat
wrote:

It's highly unlikely the ISS will ever repay even a small part of its
development, construction, and resupply costs in any sort of a tangible
economic way at any point in the future.

If the Salmonella vaccine pans out, it might already have.

I'm not convinced that any of the critical steps on the way to a salmonella
vaccine had anything to do with experiments done in space. Sorry.

According to Astrogenetix, the Salmonella mutates in low gravity into a
more virulent form, and then they extract mutant DNA from it to make
into a vaccine that can defeat the less virulent earthly forms.

And if they wave their hands fast enough they might be able to fly.

If you read the public blurbs about this, you see common features.....

they send bacteria to space and grow them.

they claim this makes them more pathogenic

vague claims about a "latent genetic code" are made

they seem to have a good idea already about what makes salmonella
pathogenic, though, since they say this is all similar to what
happens in the human gut.

then they say that another team is testing compounds for a vaccine
(maybe true)

but they never really say what the space experiments had to do with
the compounds being tested, or why the experiments could not have
been done on earth.

Additionally, sorry guys, i have no idea why an organism with a long axis a few
microns long, living in a liquid medium would be affected by microgravity
at all. Maybe there are some interesting growth effects under certain
conditions, but i really sincerely doubt that the only place these conditions
can be created is in space.

If anyone thinks that bringing organisms back to Earth that have mutated
into more virulent forms in space is a bad idea, I fully agree.
This sounds like Fred Hoyle's Comet-Borne Flu Germs being done on purpose.

Actually it sounds more like a billionaire's son found an interesting way
to get some PR.

--
--

On 7/11/2010 7:13 PM, David Spain wrote:
Pat Flannery wrote:
Until I read that zero-G is more like the inside of our intestines
than most earth medical labs can simulate, I had no idea that our
innards were coated with Cavorite. :-D

Pat

I've been to plenty of restaurants where the after effects I swear, we're
the same as if the food contained Cavorite. And I *do* plan to avoid
that London restaurant where the salads served (or was it the Pepper
shaker?) in some rare cases appear to contain Polonium*.

Wasn't it the tea?

Note to self: Avoid restaurants where the pepper shakers are stored in
hexagonal arrays....

Or the sis-kabobs are served on cadmium rods.

Pat

On 7/11/2010 7:27 PM, Craig Bingman wrote:

then they say that another team is testing compounds for a vaccine
(maybe true)

Two I know of; the one I linked to, and another that is for chickens,
not people: http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA10/samvax697.php
Neither is space-related.

but they never really say what the space experiments had to do with
the compounds being tested, or why the experiments could not have
been done on earth.

Additionally, sorry guys, i have no idea why an organism with a long axis a few
microns long, living in a liquid medium would be affected by microgravity
at all. Maybe there are some interesting growth effects under certain
conditions, but i really sincerely doubt that the only place these conditions
can be created is in space.

I was wondering about the organisms floating around in zero-G rather
than adhering to things like the growth medium, causing them to spread
faster.


Pat