http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57611307-1/new-species-of-microbe-thrives-in-spacecraft-clean-rooms/ - Cnet - Nasa
Thursday, November 7, 2013
"New species of microbe thrives in spacecraft clean rooms"
A new microbe was recently discovered in two places that were considered the cleanest places on Earth. Spacecraft Clean rooms in Florida and South America were thought to be spotless, until Tersicoccus phoenicis showed up. These microbes have never been seen in nature before, in fact, they are so rare that they had to make a new genus to name it. Tersicoccus phoenicis is able to survive on virtually no nutrients, so ultra clean surfaces such as spacecrafts are possible places where they can survive. They plan on using these findings to keep clean rooms even cleaner than they had been before. A possible implication of this microbe living on a spacecraft is it riding to space and being considered the first life found on Mars.
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As an engineer, I do not have much knowledge of microbiology, so forgive me if I sound dumb, but if we have found this microbe in the cleanest of environments, how do we prevent or predict the presence of other microbes in the same environment? You stated that we plan on using this discovery to prevent similar outbreaks in other clean rooms. Do you know how clean rooms would begin to prepare for this kind of disinfecting?
ReplyDeleteMy best guess would be chemicals because alcohol itself in hand sanitizer is 99.9 percent effective at killing germs and such. I'm sure there are even more potent chemicals for killing microbes.
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