00:04Astronauts are known for eating not the freshest foods, and while their diets consist of more than just freeze-dried
00:09Neapolitan ice cream, growing food in space is going to be key to humanity colonizing other planets.
00:15However, a new study has found some troubling news about the healthsomeness of greens grown in space.
00:20According to researchers from the University of Delaware, leafy plants grown in simulated microgravity are more likely to harbor salmonella
00:27bacteria.
00:27The ISS was already found to be a capsule full of fungi and bacteria as diverse as anywhere on Earth,
00:33meaning the discovery of salmonella on plants grown in similar conditions means it's also possible to happen up there, a
00:39dangerous notion since medical care could be weeks if not months away.
00:43So why is lettuce more susceptible to bacteria in microgravity?
00:46Well, the researchers found that when the leaves of the plants were in that state of weightlessness, their stomata pores
00:51would open.
00:51These are usually used to keep dangerous bacteria out, meaning the state of microgravity disables its ability somehow.
00:57With the researchers saying about their findings, the fact that the stomata were remaining open when we were presenting them
01:03with what would appear to be a stress was really unexpected.
01:05It is important to better understand how bacterial pathogens react to microgravity in order to develop appropriate mitigation strategies.
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