Astronaut’s Immune System Weakens After Space-Flight

These bacteria are out of this world, human pathogens on the international space station, writes Rachel Sidebottom for Schaechter.

With the launch of Crew Dragon by SpaceX, space exploration is once again in the American spotlight.
Astronauts experience limited gravity (formally, microgravity) in addition to high levels of radiation and general stresses on the body that lead to dampened immunity.
Microbes can grow in surface-associated communities – biofilms- that protect themselves from the...