NASA wanted to conduct an experiment on how pathogenic bacteria
behaved outside the confines of Earth's gravity. Its experiment
bore some surprising In September 2006, the Space Shuttle
STS-115 launched, carrying in its cargo a sample of Salmonella
bacteria. The sample was part of a collaborative experiment with
Arizona State University's Center for Infectious Diseases and
Vaccinology, which wanted to investigate the effects of
weightlessness and other space phenomena on pathogens. ASU kept
a separate sample in similar condition on earth as a control
group. When the sample from space returned, they proceeded to
feed both strains of salmonella to lab mice. The results were
startling. After 25 days, 40 percent of the earth-strain mice
were still alive. Only 10 percent of the group infected with the
space-strain was still alive. Researchers conducted additional
studies which revealed that only 1/3 as many of the space-strain
pathogens were needed to kill a healthy mouse as earth strain
pathogens. The conclusions