What made you think “I want to study astrobiology!” when you were in high school?

“Biology and Geology classes definitely helped. My professor used to talk about planet Earth (and life) from a cosmic and, in a way, also apocalyptic perspective. We would talk about mass extinction scenarios, super eruptions of volcanoes, mega meteorites, or just about the fact that the sun will someday explode. We would leave those classes thinking of the Earth not as an isolated planet, but as a planet that is part of the Solar System, part of an enormous Universe. The simple thought that life is extremely dependent on its surrounding environment, was pivotal for me to start thinking that, maybe, we are not that special, and that there is probably life on other planets. I started to take an interest in learning about the origin of life on Earth and how it relates to extraterrestrial life. One day (one of those days in which you dive deep into the infinite depths of the internet), I ended up finding the word Astrobiology.”

2. What are you working on right now?

“We have a really cool experiment going on with NASA Ames — we sent some samples up in a balloon that flew to the stratosphere, so that we could expose some microbes to extreme conditions (especially in terms of ultraviolet radiation). The samples arrived from the US last week, and the next step is to analyse them and check whether the microbes survived or not!”

3. What findings regarding your Filamentous Fungi have impressed you the most so far? What about Space Biofilms? Did the bacteria and fungi you want to study already leave to the International Space Station?

“So far, what impressed me the most was the fact that fungi spores are much more resilient regarding extreme conditions than we imagined. It’s funny to think that some years ago, we thought that there was no life in deserts or at the bottom of the oceans. Now we know that finding truly sterile environments on Earth is almost impossible, and that many organisms can even survive space expeditions! Now, about Space Biofilms, the experiment is scheduled to leave for the ISS on November 2nd (if everything runs smoothly). You can watch the livestream of the launch here: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public .”

4. When simulating and using space conditions in your experiments, which factors do you think are behind the differences between your results and those that would be obtained using Earth’s conditions?

“Simulating microgravity, for example, is quite hard. The attraction of Earth’s gravitational field is too powerful for us to be able to convince the microbes (and other cells) that they are actually experiencing microgravity when they are on Earth, even with our simulation methods (clinostats, parabolic flights, etc). Therefore, the same experiment conducted in a simulator or in real space conditions will always produce different results. Radiation is another important factor. It’s challenging to simulate space’s radiation cocktail. Outer/deep space has different types of radiation (ultraviolet, ionic, X rays, Gamma rays, etc.). Here on Earth, it is not easy to expose microbes to all of these radiations at the same time. It’s because of these factors that our access to the ISS is so important, so that we can study what happens in real conditions.”

5. Taking into account your work and what is currently known about how microorganisms can adapt to the conditions of space, how wrong (or right!) do you thing our fantasized vision of extraterrestrial life is?

“My answer to this is quite contradictory. We live in an era where we know enough to say “there was probably life on Mars once” or “it’s likely that there is life on the moon Europa”. However, we do not know enough to comprehend exactly of what kind of life we are talking about, or even how we could detect it. Regarding our fantasized vision of life outside of Earth…if what we expect are green little men on Mars, then we’re very wrong. If what we imagine are bacteria, or something more complex such as moss or maybe a sort of jellyfish, then that might be possible.”

6. I saw that you created a Twitter Course on Space Microbiology, but I cannot find it online. Is it still available?

“Sure! We have all the courses in Wakelet, and the one about Space Microbiology is here: https://wakelet.com/wake/d23cef77-0716-494f-ac20-3454a6e352f3 I had trouble opening this content in different browsers, so I may make it available on another platform soon!”

7. You made a coloring book about your Space Microbes, which is amazing! But… what do you think we should be teaching kids about microorganisms? What about the kids’ parents? Do you think that this type of literacy would help us create a deeper understanding of our health, our microbiome, or our antibiotic intake?

“I know that the educational programme is constantly changing, and maybe kids are being taught a lot more about microbes than my generation was. Despite that, I think scientific education regarding microbiology is quite wanting. We are living in the age of molecular biology, which is not yet public knowledge. With genetics and microbiology getting more and more ingrained into our lives a each day (through food and medicine), it’s important that we understand how our body operates on the microscopic level, and not only in terms of organs and the main cycles. In elementary school, we stop learning at the cell level, which is not enough. I think it’s relevant that we know that the lego pieces that create our cells are the same as the ones that create microbes, or a fruit fly, or a tree! It is also essential to acknowledge that our body relies on microbes to work properly. The vision that a microbe is always an evil creature (a germ) is extremely damaging.”

8. On society6, there is an amazing art collection, together with clothing, accessories, and other products. Your microscopy photos are there as well. How did idea come to fruition?