Joining NASA was very exciting, but it was the hardest decision I have had to make in my life. Kathleen Rubins More Quotes by Kathleen Rubins More Quotes From Kathleen Rubins If you find something that you're excited about and you're interested in, my advice to young women and young men would be do what you're really interested in and what drives and motivates you. Kathleen Rubins youwomenadvicemen Most germs aren't bad. You're in a microbial environment all the time. Kathleen Rubins badyouenvironmenttime There's a world of insights to be gained into human health and disease by understanding how gravity and space radiation influence biology. Kathleen Rubins healthspaceunderstandingworld We're pretty interested in microbial communities on-board space stations. It's a closed-loop system. Our water is recycled; our air is recycled. Kathleen Rubins prettyspaceairwater Folks should find what really inspires them; they should always pursue what they want to do. Kathleen Rubins findalwayspursuewant Young people can accomplish a lot. Kathleen Rubins young-peopleaccomplishyoungpeople They say that in space, nobody can hear you scream. The first time I stepped out of the airlock, I was ready to scream - not because I was scared but because I was so excited to see the Earth below me. Kathleen Rubins meyouspacetime I think it's going to be amazing to see how the world of microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and human physiology is massively changed by microgravity. Kathleen Rubins amazingthinkbiologyworld I kind of watch anything on the Syfy channel. Kathleen Rubins channelwatchanythingkind I think it's reasonable: you can own your nerd credibility when you're an astronaut. Kathleen Rubins yourownthinkyou My lab used to do gene expression and genomics, and we did a lot of sequencing samples from virus outbreaks. Kathleen Rubins virusdidusedexpression When I was in grad school, I wanted to be in academia forever. Kathleen Rubins academiaforeverwantedschool When I was 16, my dad took me to a DNA conference at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, California, and I was captivated by this way of looking at biology and by the discussions of bits of nucleic acid that could make us sick. Kathleen Rubins lookingmedadscience As an undergraduate majoring in biology at the University of California, San Diego, I worked on infectious diseases at the nearby Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Kathleen Rubins studiesuniversitybiologycalifornia I decided to do graduate studies in virology at Stanford University in California because it had a hospital, which made working on clinical applications easier. Kathleen Rubins hospitalworkingbecauseuniversity There's actually an incredible amount of parallels between working in central Congo in a remote, isolated village and doing research aboard the space station. Kathleen Rubins doingvillagespaceresearch For long-duration exploration missions, NASA is looking for folks with a lot of operational, hands-on experience, people who have been in field-type situations such as military deployments. In my case, I worked in the Congo and in Biosafety Level 4 labs on smallpox. Kathleen Rubins lookingexperiencemilitarypeople You need nerves of steel if climbing aboard a rocket is your career path. Kathleen Rubins yourneedyoupath NASA trains you to assess emergency situations and react in a way to keep yourself and everyone else safe. Kathleen Rubins reactyourselfyouway I thought I was prepared for space, and it still absolutely defied every expectation and dream. It is an incredible thing to put yourself on a rocket and launch off the planet. It is an amazing thing to see the planet from space. This blue sphere is almost indescribably beautiful. Kathleen Rubins yourselfspacebluebeautiful
