Silver Keeps the ISS Healthy!
Silver and ruthenium coating to get rid of the microbes! Harmful bacteria can survive in space under zero-gravity conditions. That can make for some pretty unhealthy living and working conditions on the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continually inhabited since November 2000. One of the areas which scientists found particularly rife with bacteria is the toilet door. Such infestations are more dangerous for astronauts in space because prolonged time in orbit has been shown to reduce a person’s immune system. Microgravity, along with solar and cosmic radiation, changes the immune-regulatory system of the crew, leaving them more susceptible to pathogens. “Spaceflight can turn harmless bacteria into potential pathogens,” said senior study author Elisabeth Grohmann of Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, in a prepared statement. “Just as stress hormones leave astronauts vulnerable to infection, the bacteria they carry become hardier...