To the space and back

A 5-member zero-gravity team from the lab (l to r: Francesco, Jeanette, Anupam, Ulrike and Roman) took to the skies on October 22, 2016 with the 2nd. Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign. The team used this unique experimental opportunity – multiple cycles of hyper and microgravity conditions onboard the flight – to investigate the effect of gravity on phytoplankton migration. They have designed and used a two-pronged approach combining direct visualization of individual microscopic cells swimming, and molecular techniques to assess gene expression differences as a result of the changes in gravity.