No Foolin' -- 'Lab on a Chip' Works! 04.06.2007-SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

April 6, 2007: "What a huge relief," says Norman Wainwright of the

Charles River Laboratories in Charleston, SC. "The whole technical team was delighted that it worked so well."

He's talking about a miniature biological laboratory just tested for

the first time onboard the International Space Station. Called LOCAD-PTS (short for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development–Portable Test System), the mini-lab detects the presence of bacteria or fungi on the surfaces of a spacecraft far more rapidly than standard methods of culturing.

Right: LOCAD-PTS, a handheld biological laboratory for space travel.

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"The ability to monitor microorganisms would be especially important

on long space voyages, not only to check the health of astronauts but also to monitor electronics and structural materials, which can be corroded or otherwise damaged by certain fungi and bacteria," says Wainwright, the experiment's principal investigator. LOCAD-PTS is designed so that "astronauts can do the analysis onboard with no need to return samples to laboratories on Earth.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY GO TO: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/06apr_locad2.htm?list833