No, it’s not the title of a new Muppets movie. And the image above isn’t the name of a space ship. It’s a scan of sticker that made its way to me from Dr. Dave Niesel. “SPEGIS” stands for Streptococcus pneumoniae Expression of Genes in Space. It was/is a project to grow the bacteria in orbit and bring them back home frozen in “zero-g mode” for study. Niesel and his colleagues want to know exactly how Streptococcus pneumoniae changes in microgravity and whether those changes could pose a threat to crew members on a mission with no chance of a quick return to Earth, say on a journey to Mars and back. They’ve been working on this since 1999; it’s one of the first studies of this kind, ever. They celebrated a major milestone last Tuesday when the Endeavor touched down with their project onboard. I watched on C-SPAN; Niesel was at the cape. Read the whole story…