FSU professor's chemical gardening research is heading to International Space Station

There’s only so much you can do in an Earth-bound university laboratory. Experimenting under microgravity is not one of them.

But unique research conducted at Florida State University will reach new heights when Professor Oliver Steinbock’s chemical gardens experiments will be tested in space.

Steinbock, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is sending samples to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The June 29 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will mark the 15th International Space Station resupply mission.

The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a research hub and science laboratory for astronauts and cosmonauts. NASA uses it to advance studies on living and working in space.

The goal is to sprout a chemical garden — described as inorganic structures that can spring up from metal salts and a silicate solution.

 “I’m very excited,” said Steinbock, who has been invited by NASA to the launch. “You probably only do this — work with the International Space Station — just once in a lifetime.”

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Chemical gardens are small structures — about a half-inch high — of metal salts such as iron chloride or copper oxide. Scientists use the experiment in attempts to grow new materials and understand more about Earth’s history.

The gardens are inorganic, but they may mimic life-forming processes that occurred at the site of hydrothermal vents found on the sea floor, according to an FSU release. Some of the structures appear virtually identical to microfossils that scientists have found.

Steinbock will send more than 35 vacuum-sealed sample bags aboard the SpaceX rocket to the space station. Once there, an astronaut will perform the experiment by removing a spacer that separates silicate solution from the metal salts.

Typically, chemical gardens can grow in mere minutes, Steinbock said. But, it is unknown how they will grow in space.

On earth, these structures grow upward, but that would likely change under conditions of microgravity.

“We want to see how they grow, what they look like,” Steinbock said. “In the lab, they grow upward. In the space station, there is no top or bottom so they will grow in an arbitrary random direction.

“This is something you can’t easily do in the lab,” he added. “I’m excited and so are my students.”

Alex Blanchard, a doctoral candidate under Steinbock, will perform a control experiment in Steinbock’s lab with the same metal salts and compare the outcomes.

Some other Earth-bound experiments will take place in the lab of NASA scientist Richard Grugel who is Steinbock's collaborator on this project.

“We want to get insight into the growth mechanisms,” Steinbock said. “Once we understand it, we want to manipulate them in the lab to grow structures that could have functional use.”

For instance, the miniature structures could be used as tiny delivery and analysis systems. One basic idea is to shrink chemical labs to small "plumbing networks" that pump, process, and distribute liquids.

Such highly engineered microfluidic devices find already numerous applications for medical diagnostics, he said.

A microfluidic device is an instrument that uses small amounts of fluid on a microchip to do certain laboratory tests, according to the National Cancer Institute. It may use body fluids or solutions containing cells or cell parts to diagnose diseases.

"If you can control the formation, you could grow microtubes and other structures without expensive engineering," Steinbock said.

Much more research needs to be done, but Steinbock says he’s inspired by the ways living organisms solve engineering problems.

"I believe that many tricks of living systems can be transferred to inorganic materials to grow structures and devices in new ways."

Gary K. Ostrander, vice president for research at FSU, said the opportunity to have research done at the International Space Station is an "unparalleled experience" for a scientist.

“As scientists, we know how these materials behave on Earth, but Professor Steinbock will have the opportunity to study how they behave in zero gravity," he said. "That could lead his research in many new directions.”

Contact senior writer Byron Dobson at bdobson@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @byrondobson.