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TIL on 29 April 2013, scientists reported that during spaceflight microbes seem to adapt to the space environment in ways "not observed on Earth"

and in ways that "can lead to increases in growth and virulence".

very interesting article as well

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  • Article itself is kind of short on details; the original paper is quite a bit more interesting:

    Spaceflight was observed to increase the number of viable cells, biofilm biomass, and thickness relative to normal gravity controls. Moreover, the biofilms formed during spaceflight exhibited a column-and-canopy structure that has not been observed on Earth. The increase in the amount of biofilms and the formation of the novel architecture during spaceflight were observed to be independent of carbon source and phosphate concentrations in the media. However, flagella-driven motility was shown to be essential for the formation of this biofilm architecture during spaceflight.

    There is both a fairly exotic theory, and a new book by the author of "The Martian," related to this.