Date:  Wednesday 20 February 2019
Speaker:  Natasha Nicholson (RAL/BID)
Title:  "Gravitational Geomicrobiology: Microbe-Mineral Interactions in Non-Terrestrial Gravity Environments"


Abstract:
Microbes form cooperative communities known as biofilms, some of which attach to rocks and minerals, pulling 
elements from the matrix. Reduced gravity is known to enhance microbial growth dynamics and alter biofilm 
architecture. An experiment will fly to the International Space Station experiment in 2019 to investigate how 
in micro- and Martian-gravity will affect rock-weathering bacterial biofilms; the experiment will be described, 
some applications will be discussed, and the previously unstudied effects of hyper-gravity on microbial biofilms 
will be explored.