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NASA's latest mission to the ISS features a bacterial experiment

The strains of bacteria will be studied on how they grow in zero gravity conditions on the ISS.

This experiment isn't the plot to some cheesy horror film, but a scientific investigation from the Sheba Medical Center in Israel and the US-based company Space Tango with the goal of better understanding how bacteria spread and behave under extreme conditions. "This experiment will allow us, for the first time, to systematically and molecularly map how the genetic expression profile of several pathogenic bacteria changes in space," Ohad Gal-Mor, head of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at Sheba, said in a press release. The medical center previously conducted a test with bacteria in simulated space conditions, which showed a reduced ability to develop antibiotic resistance, but the latest experiment is the first one to take place at the ISS.

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