Carlos the Scientist

The new approach has so far only been tested in the lab and on mice, but it could offer a potential solution to antibiotic resistance, which is now getting so bad that the United Nations recently declared it a “fundamental threat” to global health.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria already kill around 700,000 people each year, but a recent study suggests that number could rise to around 10 million by 2050.

In addition to common hospital superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), scientists are now also concerned that gonorrhoea is about tobecome resistant to all remaining drugs.

But Shu Lam, a 25-year-old PhD student at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has developed a star-shaped polymer that can kill six different superbug strains without antibiotics, simply by ripping apart their cell walls.

“We’ve discovered that [the polymers] actually target the bacteria and kill it in multiple ways,” Lam told Nicola Smith from The Telegraph. “One method is by physically disrupting or breaking apart the cell wall of the bacteria. This creates a lot of stress on the bacteria and causes it to start killing itself.”

The research has been published in Nature Microbiology, and according to Smith, it’s already being hailed by scientists in the field as “a breakthrough that could change the face of modern medicine”.

Before we get too carried away, it’s still very early days. So far, Lam has only tested her star-shaped polymers on six strains of drug-resistant bacteria in the lab, and on one superbug in live mice.

But in all experiments, they’ve been able to kill their targeted bacteria - and generation after generation don’t seem to develop resistance to the polymers.

are more genetically compatible than These

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Are more distantly related from one another than you and I are from a lungfish

are genetically closer than these

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are genetically closer than these

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are more genetically similar than these

I bring in a graduated cylinder of it and we talk about how it’s used in nuclear power plants and gmo crops. How inhaling even the small amount I’m holding can lead to suffocation or even death. It’s found in vaccines and cancer cells, but also in infant formula and pet food. It is a huge component of acid rain, can cause severe burns, and has been found in places that were thought to be the most pristine and unpolluted locations on earth.

We talk about how there are little to no regulations on this chemical. No bans, no warning labels, and most manufacturers don’t even have to disclose their use of it in their products.

My students are outraged. We talk about what we can do. Create posters and flyers to spread awareness. Contact our senators with petitions to ban DHMO. Spread this information all over social media.

Then I explain that the real problem with dihydrogen monoxide is that….when I am thirsty…there is just nothing else as refreshing, and then I watch their looks of absolute shock and horror as I drink the entire vial down.

Gymnosomata, commonly known as Sea Angels. An apt name- the sea angels are the ethereal, translucent, fluttering angels of the sea. 

HECK YEAH

VIDEO FROM THE SURFACE OF A COMET

This is truly incredible.

Details:

nO StOP IT

i aM DEAD

BONNETHEAD IS AN OMNIVORE SHARK, RESEARCHERS FOUND

What an animal consumes and what an animal digests and assimilates for energetic demands are not always synonymous. Sharks, accepted as carnivores, have guts that are presumed to be well suited for a high-protein diet. However, the bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo), an abundant shark commonly found in seagrass habitats, has been previously shown to consume copious amounts of seagrass, flowering marine plant that forms subsea meadows in some coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, as in other parts of the world. And now, is considered the first known plant-eating shark. The finding were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

The bonnethead shark is an abundant shark species in shallow waters of the Eastern Pacific, the Western Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico, where they feed on seagrass and small crustaceans, snails and other fishes, and according to researchers, in natural conditions, up to 62.1% of gut content mass is seagrass. Because a large percentage of the diet is seagrass, conserving seagrass beds is vital to the hammerhead shark family and other marine life.

Photo: bonnethead shark in Bahia State, Brazil, by José Amorim Reis-Filho.