Author: Jessica Leigh Hester / Source: Atlas Obscura
Many scientists place a high premium on surfaces that go way beyond squeaky clean. If you’re scrutinizing ancient DNA or the composition of a meteorite, for instance, you want to be absolutely sure that a jumble of recent genetic material or landlubbing organisms haven’t found a way in and scuttled the data.
That’s why NASA routinely evaluates its clean rooms, which are designed to store samples while limiting contamination. Thoroughly sealing any facility against anything and everything is a tall order. But at the very least, it’s helpful for researchers to know what they’re up against so they can look out for anything that could potentially skew data and, if left unchecked, lead them to misleading conclusions.
A recent sweep of one of the clean room facilities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, turned up a smattering…
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