Superbug
gregladen | September 11, 2016Ever year about 23,000 people die of infections from antibiotic resistant bacterial.
Here is a film of bacteria evolving from regular old bacteria into killer superbugs. On a coffee table size Petri dish.
You can get the story at NPR, where you will learn that
"Getting more people to understand how quickly bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance might help people understand why they shouldn't be prescribed antibiotics. The drug resistance is not some abstract threat. It's real."
lborkowski | April 13, 2011A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Superbugs Found in New Delhi's Water and Sewage
Kim Barker at ProPublica: 'Spillionaires': Profiteering and Mismanagement in the Wake of the BP Oil Spill
Darryl Fears in the Washington Post: Goldman Environmental Prize goes to Texas man who took on refineries over pollution
Janet D. Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science: Equal Pay Day 2011: There is power in a union
Martin Austermuhle in the Nation: Washington, DC: Where Conservative Congressmen Dump Bad Ideas
laelaps | June 8, 2010
Welcome Maryn McKenna and her blog Superbug to Sb! And, in case I forgot to mention it before, make sure to check out Deborah Blum's blog Speakeasy Science, too!
Wildlife experts use civetone-containing cologne to lure big cats
In a scene reminiscent of the ending of Kingdom of the Spiders, caterpillars blanket the English countryside with webs.
Coming soon, Inside Nature's Giants, series two.
John Lynch shares the introduction to Follies of the Present Day: Scriptural Geology from 1817 to 1857.
So you want to be a scientist? Learn to write!
How to make a blockbuster - the…
ddobbs | March 17, 2010Neither plane crashes nor anti-aircraft fire could kill my namesake uncle, but MRSA did, and it wasn't pretty. Accordingly I take a particular in this nasty bacteria, and am looking forward to reading Maryn McKenna's new book, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, which I just ordered from Amazon, and which comes out next week.
While you're waiting to order yours, you can see hear from McKenna about MRSA, and the new strain's emergence in the daughter of a Dutch pig farmer, in this short video clip:
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edyong | January 23, 2009Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is very difficult to kill. This notorious "superbug" can withstand a broad and growing range of antibiotics, and is the leading cause of hospital infections in many countries. But it's not restricted to hospitals. According to studies coming in from all over the world, MRSA has found a new route into our bodies -piggyback.
Pig farms throughout the world have become breeding grounds for strains of MRSA that can jump from swine to humans. These strains have already been isolated in the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada, and now, the latest study…