Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that stick to one another and also adhere to a nearby surface. They are intricately associated with life on Earth, enabling functions essential to human and plant systems.
NASA's Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) Analysis Working Groups study biofilms and many other biological phenomena in an environment that's important to NASA: the environment of deep space. It's not well understood how well biofilms react to the many stresses of spaceflight.
Now, a new study, performed in part by NASA volunteers, describes how biofilms adapt to space environments, exploring how biofilms may benefit human and plant health in space.
