Belly Microbes to the Rescue

Did you know that there are up to six pounds of bacteria in our gut? That is almost twice the weight of the average human brain. If you knew that fact already, I bet you didn't know that the same bacteria in our gut could potentially have a large impact on our mental health. An article, "Creative Minds: Can Microbes Influence Mental Health?" (January 27, 2014)  by Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, discusses how the bacteria in our gut influences our minds. The person in charge of this research is Elaine Hsiao; a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology.
The article starts off describing Hsiao and letting us know of how she came to be interested in this research. Collins lists Hsiao's prior education and experience to credit her knowledge of the subject, incorporating the ethos element into her article. Collins then states that, "One species of bacterium, for example, sends messages that are carried via the vagus nerve, which links the intestinal lining to the brain. When this species is present, the mice demonstrate fewer depressive behaviors than when it’s absent." This statement just shows one of the ways that the bacteria from our gut can affect our brains. It is also said that mice who displayed behaviors of autism and were given probiotics had a dissipation in their abnormalities of behavior. I found this fact to be very promising. Eventually leading to probiotics to treat symptoms of autism would be an incredible accomplishment.
I understand that microbes play a crucial role in the surviving of the human species, in retrospect one could say we're just a big microbe storage system. Looking at the fact that microbes do make human existence possible, it would make a lot of sense that microbes have a lot to do with the brain and our human behaviors. Understanding that the immune system works alongside with "normal microbes", the article made it clear that Hsiao is working specifically on how gut microbes have an impact on, "immunity, functioning of the brain and behaviors in mouse models of neurodevelopment disorders." Hsiao is also studying how microbes can have and influence on one's seratonin levels. Most of us are familiar with seratonin and its links to depression but Collins states that it, "...also helps to regulate heart function, constriction of blood vessels, and differentiation of red blood cells." Collins also says that Hsiaos plan is to eventually, "identify specific types of bacteria that modulate human serotonin levels, figure out the biochemical pathways they use, and understand the links to human disease."
I think that this is a fantastic field of study. Using our own bacteria to form a defense against neurological diseases sounds completely practical. There are so many side-effects to different medications that treat depression and other mental diseases. Eventually moving to treating mental and neurological diseases with our own bacteria would be a much healthier version of treatment. I think that there are nearly unlimited uses for microbes. The fact microbes support life is purely amazing, so there has to be more to them that humans just don't know yet. I recently learned in my Biology 110 course that microbes weren't heavily studied until the last twenty, or so years. This shows that there is so much more room for discovery and so much more for humans to learn about microbes. Microbes are infinite.

In some cases, finding life on Mars would be a very compelling find for NASA. But in this case, finding any kind of environment that could potentially support Earthly microbes is something NASA would not find to be compelling. On November 26, 2011 NASA launched the Mars rover, Curiosity, from Cape Canaveral. Before the launching of Curiosity, there was a potential contamination of one of the rover's drill bits. Six months before the launch, mission planners were concerned that the possibility of a unstable landing could damage one of the drills. To be sure, mission planners went back into the rover and installed another drill bit. By doing so, they could establish that Curiosity could sustain landing. Unfortunately, somewhere throughout this last-minute procedure, Curiosity's drill bits could have been contaminated with Earth microbes. The major concern is that if Curiosity finds water or ice and the drill bits touch water, the Earth microbes could survive on Mars. 

An article titled, "If the Mars rover finds water, it could be H2 ... uh oh!" (Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, September 09, 2012) accurately describes the event of the contamination of Curiosity's drill bit. The author, Louis Sahagun, does not necessarily state an opinion and therefore does not come off as bias. The author simply presents the facts and details of the event. Although Sahagun did not state his opinion on the situation, I will. In the article is a statement from NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, Catharine Conley, saying, "They shouldn't have done it [opened the box] without telling me," she said "It is not responsible for us not to follow our own rules." This statement makes it clear that with a little bit of extra communication, a portion of, if not the entire problem in itself could have been avoided.  I understand that I'm just an undergrad student at the University of New Mexico. Although, I do feel that I have the right to believe that when it comes to a NASA space launch, assuming that it's okay to do something without consulting the Planetary Protection Officer first, is a big "no-no".  Understandably, being somebody who is far from perfect, I realize that we all make mistakes and NASA engineers need a break every once and a while also. With that said, their mistakes are at a much higher stake than my spilling of coffee on a good sweater. 

Some may disagree and say that I'm not having any sympathy for the engineers who contaminated Curiosity's drill bits. That isn't necessarily the point I am trying to get across, I understand that their job is very hard and I guarantee that I couldn't last a day in the life of an engineer. At the same time, the fact that this whole situation might have been avoided with some simple communication, is what seems so silly to me. Upon doing some more research on this event, I found an NPR interview conducted with host, Ira Flatow, and Catharine Conley herself. When asked for a play-by-play of what happened in this situation Conley replied, "It turned out, yes, there was this problem with the communication..." My point exactly. If the Planetary Protection Officer agrees with me, my opinion must mean something. 

The whole point of this article was to emphasize that the drill bits were contaminated with Earth microbes. I would assume that the NASA "rover building area" would be extremely sterilized. The mistake that was made here was that the engineers opened the box after the bits had been sterilized. As I am unsure as to what precautionary "anti-Earth microbe" procedures the engineers took before opening the box, it sounds like whatever they did may not have been successful. Remember, microbes have the same width as 1/100th of a human hair, so they are invisible to the naked eye.

Maybe one day NASA will find some little green friends on Mars, but hopefully not because of Curiosity's contaminated drill bits. It is clear that the issue in this situation was miscommunication and improper sterilization techniques. So, the next time you need to change the drill bits in your space rover, don't forget to sterilize for microbes. If you do forget, just make sure to tell your Planetary Protection Officer. 

I chose to take this course because I've always viewed Biology as my favorite scientific subject. Before I came to class I was completely unaware of what a "microbe" was. Now that I know what microbes are, I am very excited and intrigued about this course.

http://www.techvert.com/oil-eating-microbes-consume-oil-plume/