I THINK IT'S JUST AN INCREDIBLE HONOR EVERY
DAY WHEN I WAKE UP THAT I'M WORKING FOR NASA.
SO I'M GOING TO JUST LAY MY NERD CARDS OUT ON THE TABLE.
WHAT I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IS JUST
SEEING ALL THE NEW AND DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTS.
IT'S BEEN FOUR YEARS SINCE I'VE BEEN THERE.
SO.
YOU KNOW, TELLING THE PROGRAM, GUYS, GIVE ME MORE
EXPERIMENTS, MORE EXPERIMENTS.
AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO BEING AS PRODUCTIVE
AS WE POSSIBLY CAN.
IT'S REALLY FUN TO BE UP HERE AND YOU GET TO BE ALL
KINDS OF SCIENTISTS AT ONCE.
IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY PHENOMENAL.
IT'S A WORLD-CLASS LABORATORY AND IT'S AN
ABSOLUTELY PACKED ONE.
I THINK IT'S LIKE TAKING AN ENTIRE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, A
WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITY AND SHRINKING IT DOWN TO THE
SIZE OF THE SPACE STATION.
THERE'S ABOUT 200 EXPERIMENTS ON ANY GIVEN MISSION
AND IT'S PRETTY FUN TO BE ABLE TO DO THEM ALL.
AND STATION FOR KATE.
WHAT WOULD YOU THINK ABOUT LOADING THE UP AND THE
LOWER WELL ON THIS LAST ROW.
OH, LET'S DO IT.
IT IS MORE COMPLEX UP HERE TO DO THINGS LIKE
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY.
AND SO SOME OF THE TIME WE ARE JUST INVENTING
HOW TO DO LAB WORK.
IT TOOK ABOUT 10 GENTLE SHAKES, UH, WITH THIS KIND
OF MOTION TO GET FULL RNA READER DISTRIBUTION, AND
NONE OF THOSE MIXING LINES.
COPY THAT
AND WE LIKE WHAT YOU SAW AND ARE DOING.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T AUTOMATE THINGS AND WE NEED HUMANS.
I THINK ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT BEING IN SPACE IS THAT
IT SURPRISES YOU EVERY TIME YOU, YOU THINK, YOU KNOW
WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE UP HERE AND IN THE END THAT IT'S
JUST COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
IN SPACE I GET TO SEE EVERYTHING FROM PHYSICS TO
MATERIAL SCIENCE, TO BIOLOGY.
IT'S JUST THIS INCREDIBLE SENSE OF WONDER AND JOY.
WE'RE INCREASING OUR COMPLEXITIES
DOUBLE TIME TODAY.
APPRECIATE THE PATIENCE.
THIS IS AWESOME.
IT'S NO PROBLEM.
I FLEW MY CREWMATE, UH, IKE AROUND ON THE ROBOTIC ARM
ON AN EVA NOT THAT MANY DAYS AGO, SO I SHOULD UNDERSTAND
WHAT IT TAKES TO SET UP IN THE ROBOTIC COMMANDING.
I FEEL, YEAH.
WE'RE TRYING TO TAKE A CENSUS OF WHICH MICROBES
ARE ON SPACE STATION.
SO WE'RE WORKING ON A COMPREHENSIVE SEQUENCE-BASED
MAP OF THE SPACE STATION.
WE'RE TAKING ABOUT A THOUSAND SAMPLES TOTAL.
AND SO I'M, UH, VERY CAREFULLY SWABBING ALL OF THE MODULES.
EVERYBODY FLOATS BY AND SAYS, KATE, ARE YOU STILL SWABBING?
AND I'M LIKE, YEP.
A THOUSAND SAMPLES IS A LOT.
WE TRUST YOU THAT YOU'RE DOING YOUR VERY, VERY
BEST AND WE APPRECIATE IT.
THIS IS OUR HOME.
WE EVEN SEE IT ON VIDEOS SOMETIMES WHEN WE GO BACK
AND I LOOK AT IT AND I THINK, WOW, THAT'S, THIS IS, I
FEEL LIKE THIS IS MY HOME.
BUT CERTAINLY THE PLANET IS HOME AS WELL.
AND I'M GOING TO ALWAYS TRY TO KEEP THAT IN THE FOREFRONT OF
MY MIND AND APPRECIATE THAT.
KATE, WE THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO PUSH SPACE
SCIENCE THROUGH YOUR WORK ON BOARD AND THROUGH ALL
YOU DO TO SOCIALIZE AND EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY IN SPACE.
IT'S REALLY, REALLY, REALLY FUN TO BE AT THE POINTY END
OF THIS SPEAR HERE AND, AND TO, UH, GET A CHANCE TO DO
THIS SEQUENCING IN SPACE.
SO I'M VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS AND I CAN'T WAIT
UNTIL WE'RE SEQUENCING MULTIPLEXING 96 WELL PLATES
AND SWABBING EVERYTHING ON THE SPACE STATION.
THAT'S WHERE WE'RE HEADED NEXT.
THERE'S A LOT GOING ON UP HERE.
AND I REALLY DO THINK THAT SCIENCE IS AN INCREDIBLE
CAREER, WHETHER YOU'RE DOING IT IN SPACE OR ON THE GROUND,
IF PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN THIS, THE PLEASURE AND, AND
THE GRATIFICATION OF BEING A SCIENTIST EVERY DAY, IT'S,
IT'S TRULY AMAZING TO GET UP AND DISCOVER NEW THINGS.