Yeast Cell Experiment

118 total words    

<1 minutes of reading

“Yeast cell experiments on Artemis 1 may help astronauts survive cosmic radiation in deep space” CBC News August 27, 2022.


my experimental self 6000 yeast genes 

strain against glass walls of a test tube

neatly tucked into a shoebox-sized laboratory

adrift beyond Earth’s magnetosphere

bombarded by cosmic radiation 

moisture, sugar, golden nuggets of DNA

metabolize, find a foothold, 

dewdrop bubbling, cell dividing 

maybe one day they will discover the one and only gene

out of 6000 that makes me want to stay out here

hunker down, not answer the phone, read mystery novels, 

replicating my yeasty way through the dark unknown


Featured Image credit:
Scanning electrograph image of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells grown on the International Space Station. NASA
: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=298.

  • Joy Dubé

    As an early childhood educator, Joy Dubé uses poetry and writing as a way to help children discover deep truths about themselves in a second, acquired language (French). She herself writes poetry to understand the world and the human relationships with Nature, and with one another.

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