The dangers of space travel are myriad and horrifying, and that is not counting the uncountable swarms of micro aliens waiting to surround us the moment we leave the protection of earths atmosphere and carry us off to their home planet for horrible experimentation - leaving only biotic clones in our place... or so the government would have us believe! But beyond the paranoia that regularly sweeps the WhatCulture office, there are serious people in lab coats, holding clipboards (Scientists) who are fervently investigating what actually happens on a microbiological level to the flora and fauna that inhabit our bodies. After all, the cells that are not human outnumber the human cells on a scale of 10-1 and many perform tasks without which we would die, like digesting our food and monitoring the state of our immune system. Worryingly, the bugs and creepy crawlies that call us home may turn traitor when exposed to extended periods of zero gravity. The well known virus Salmonella becomes extremely virulent compared to its earth bound compatriots after only a few days in space, meaning that a food poisoning in space could possibly be enough to kill. Strangely, space flights can also drastically shorten the shelf life of essential medicines, meaning meds packed on an Earth based time table could be completely ineffective when needed in space. Luckily, an experiment based on the ISS is currently investigating what happens inside the body during space flight, and what can be done to protect astronauts from space grown super-bugs. Currently, they are testing whether E.Coli can survive higher strengths of antibiotics in micro-gravity, and soon the team will be infecting roundworms with Salmonella, because seeing a roundworm in body shaking pain is the sort of thing some scientists get off to.
