What are we working on?
Our research focuses on microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) that can survive in harsh environment, such as the upper atmosphere or deep-sea trenches, which may be dormant or pathogenic in nature.
For our current project, we are looking to collect the airborne ones that are circulating the atmosphere since a few studies has been done on this area. Doing this experiment will help in understanding how airborne diseases may get spread across distances, while also provide better insight on how they are capable of surviving upper atmospheric environment (low temperature, low pressure, low humidity and high UV radiation). Another subset of this experiment is also to study aerosol distribution (dust and other fine particles), in which these micro-particles are scattered in the atmosphere as result of natural or human activities and disturbing distribution of sunlight before it reaches the earth’s surface. This requires a large collection of samples from the upper atmosphere to conduct the above studies, which prompts the team to build a more efficiently designed collecting mechanism made of carbon fibers and highly durable polymers.
Interesting Fact: The instrument was flown in Alaska, but was heavily damaged during landing in collection of snags, or dead trees. The team plans to rebuild this experiment within the next few months.
For our current project, we are looking to collect the airborne ones that are circulating the atmosphere since a few studies has been done on this area. Doing this experiment will help in understanding how airborne diseases may get spread across distances, while also provide better insight on how they are capable of surviving upper atmospheric environment (low temperature, low pressure, low humidity and high UV radiation). Another subset of this experiment is also to study aerosol distribution (dust and other fine particles), in which these micro-particles are scattered in the atmosphere as result of natural or human activities and disturbing distribution of sunlight before it reaches the earth’s surface. This requires a large collection of samples from the upper atmosphere to conduct the above studies, which prompts the team to build a more efficiently designed collecting mechanism made of carbon fibers and highly durable polymers.
Interesting Fact: The instrument was flown in Alaska, but was heavily damaged during landing in collection of snags, or dead trees. The team plans to rebuild this experiment within the next few months.
Check out our wiki page for more in-depth info!
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Image Source: https://img.purch.com/w/660/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA3Ny80MzEvb3JpZ2luYWwvYmFjaWxsdXMtYmFjdGVyaWEtMTUwNzA5LmpwZw==