Swabbing Stadiums & Space Meetups
How do bacteria differ across different types of surfaces in a building?
Project Status
(updated 6/16/14)
The "microbial playoffs" portion of the project is currently on hold, due to technical problems with equipment on the International Space Station. Any updates will be posted here ASAP.
-Collect/identify microbes to go to the ISS (DONE, See candidates here)
-Microbes will fly to the ISS and grow in microgravity (SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH at 3:25pm EST, April 18, 2014, EXPERIMENT HAS NOT TAKEN PLACE YET, PLATES STILL IN FREEZER ON ISS)
-Collect microbes from the ISS for analysis on earth (SWABS COLLECTED ON ISS, MAY 9th 2014, SWAB SAMPLES RETURNED TO EARTH MAY 18, 2014)
-Collect/analyze 3000 cell phone/shoe samples (ALL SAMPLES COLLECTED, ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS)
-Visualize cell phone/shoe data for public (EVENT MAP AVAILABLE, INTERACTIVE DATA VISUALIZATION TO FOLLOW)
-Generate educational materials for classrooms (Published March 2014)
Microbial Playoffs…in SPAAAAACE!
How will microbes from YOUR favorite team perform in the space playoffs?
Space Station Microbiome
What kinds of bacteria lurk on the surfaces inside the International Space Station (ISS)?