Many people add. NASA With the exploration of new worlds the locationbut few know that it is also exploring new microscopic ecosystems here.

Years ago, Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a scientist who decontaminates spacecraft. Mars, found a curious microorganism at the end of his swab. The bacteria, which he named Bacillus pomelus, was so resilient, the usual cleaning solutions—ultraviolet light and peroxide—wouldn't kill it.

As a result of this discovery, a sample was sent to International Space Station, where astronauts dangled it 250 miles above Earth outside a laboratory to see what would happen. When the sample is returned, Many of the spores were still alive.Even 18 months after exposure to cosmic radiation.

The research was shelved, and a sample of microbes literally went into the freezer. But 25 years after it was first identified, a Massachusetts-based company is harnessing it to create a new ingredient for sunscreen. UV resistance.

The tweet may have been deleted.

The story of skincare from a spaceship has twists and turns and an extraordinary cast of characters. It starts with Kyle Landry, who started his career in food science. Landry developed an expertise in extremophiles – organisms that can live in the harshest environments on Earth – and even discovered a new type of fungus.

Landry focused on finding new and unique enzymes from certain fungi that grow at high temperatures. When added to food, these ingredients help produce nutrients Umami flavors.

David Sinclair, Geneticist at Harvard Medical School, took notice of Landry's work and offered him a postdoctoral position in his lab. Sinclair, whose research centers on why humans age and how to slow its effects, was interested in understanding how extremes can live so long and survive in hostile environments. can fix

From there, Landry began working. Liberty Biosecuritya company in the biodefense sector co-founded by Sinclair, is trying to neutralize anthrax and black plague with extremophile enzymes that are good at breaking down organic materials.

The contractor eventually began working with NASA to develop compounds that could protect the human genome from harmful effects. Cosmic radiation.

“It's not the rockets that are stopping us from getting to Mars,” Landry said. “It's our own biology to cope with six months of non-stop radiation.”

The partnership put Landry in the right place at the right time to learn about NASA's treasure trove of extremophiles, ready for further research and commercialization. At the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have discovered hundreds of these solid bodies while Trying to clear the spacecraft. Before the hardware leaves the planet. The United States has signed an international agreement to prevent extraterrestrial pollution from spreading into the atmosphere.

Mashable Light Speed

To comply, NASA has attempted to disinfect Mars rovers to a threshold of more than 300,000 bacterial spores on any surface area exposed to the Martian atmosphere. This process has been revealed. Plenty of microbes which can survive high temperatures, low nutrients, and lack of moisture.

Venkateswaran has been. Collection of specimens To keep a record of the types of so-called “dead bug bodies” that can live on NASA instruments. That way, if the rover shovels up some Martian dirt and puts it in a test tube, scientists can get an idea of ​​whether the potential evidence of an ancient life is alien or just a hiccup from Earth. Despite NASA's best efforts, there is no perfect way to make spacecraft spotless, a point John Grinsfeld, NASA's former chief scientist, made. Moved home in 2015..

“We know life already exists on Mars because we sent it there,” he then said.

Venkateswaran's second reason for saving extremophile specimens is to learn how to improve cleaning methods. For example, a strain of Bacillus pummelis was used as the definitive witness to the destruction of everything in that clean room, said Dan Lockney, executive director of NASA's Technology Transfer Program.

“If that bacteria was eliminated,” he said, “they determined that the cleanroom was as clean as possible.”

“If that bacteria was eliminated, they determined that the cleanroom was as clean as possible.”

Now how did bacteria end up in the sunscreen business?

NASA urged Landry to take a look at their catalog. Patented biologics. When he saw its ability to absorb UV rays, he licensed it, then spent the next two years figuring out how to make it. An extract from bacteria. (The proprietary product, called Bacillus lysate, contains no live bacteria.)

“We try to make sure that the things we develop for these space missions find their way into consumer goods and industrial applications and manufacturing processes and even into hospitals and grocery stores,” Lockney said. ”

Realizing that a biodefense company had no place in cosmetics, Landry created a spin-off company called Delavy Scienceswhich now makes SPF boosters in 15,000-liter reactors and sells bulk to sunscreen manufacturers.

By now it's pretty common knowledge that sunscreen is the best way to reduce skin damage. the sun. Too much UV exposure can cause cancer and age-related skin problems, such as wrinkles and spots.

There are sunscreens. Rated with SPFShort for solar protection factor, which measures how much UV radiation is necessary to penetrate the burning barrier. Using Delaware Sciences' bacillus lysate, which absorbs UV, increased the SPF 30 of sunscreens by 22 to 33 percent, a range based on the different amounts tested. a study Published in Journal Cosmetics In October 2023.

Delaware Sciences has also launched its own brand of skin care products, called Avonia, using its version of Bacillus lysate for another application that appears to stimulate the skin cells' own production. Activates Hyaluronic acidwhich helps increase collagen and elastin.

Like Willy Wonka in search of the next exotic chocolate flavor, Landry is now searching oil veins and abandoned gold mines for new organisms that could become the next big thing among extremophiles. But he emphasizes that his business wouldn't be possible without NASA.

“People think NASA is all about rockets and satellites and freeze-dried ice cream,” he said. “There's a lot more that comes to us from NASA that goes under the radar.”