question archive At a press conference announcing your company’s successful isolation and characterization and cultivation of ETPUM, a reporter raises an important question: “How do you know that this microbe actually came from NPIP (the Nearby Previously Invisible Planet) and not from Earth? Could this microbe really be an Earth microbe that was present in/on ELVIS before it was launched into space?” “That’s impossible,” your boss answers
At a press conference announcing your company’s successful isolation and characterization and cultivation of ETPUM, a reporter raises an important question: “How do you know that this microbe actually came from NPIP (the Nearby Previously Invisible Planet) and not from Earth? Could this microbe really be an Earth microbe that was present in/on ELVIS before it was launched into space?” “That’s impossible,” your boss answers
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At a press conference announcing your company’s successful isolation and characterization and cultivation of ETPUM, a reporter raises an important question: “How do you know that this microbe actually came from NPIP (the Nearby Previously Invisible Planet) and not from Earth? Could this microbe really be an Earth microbe that was present in/on ELVIS before it was launched into space?” “That’s impossible,” your boss answers. “Prior to launch, we wiped down the entire ELV and ELVIS with the disinfectants ethanol and triclosan. In addition, we used plastics impregnated with the disinfectant chlorhexidine. I had our chemists check! These chemicals do all kinds of nasty things to cells: coagulate proteins, destroy membranes. No microbes could have survived that.”
Do you think these treatments were adequate to rule out the possibility raised by the reporter? Why or why not?
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Answer:
The use of ethanol, triclosan and chlorhexidine is not enough to guarantee that the surface is clear of bacterial and fungal spores. Spores are hard to eliminate, and standard, conventional ways to kill microbes do not work on them. Apart from that, spores can survive years of being in a vaccum as well. The protocol laid out for the prevention interplanetory contamination include the use of heat, radiation, supercritical carbon dioxide, particle fluxes among others.
