A subject dear to my heart

jsmoke said:
Do I, I don't know very much about medicine. Assumed it was a new thing. Oops.
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Perhaps in the West, but it started getting used in the USSR when they couldn't supply enough anti-biotics, then eventually they stopped bothering and the research had stagnated for decades, i'm pretty sure anyway.
 
StriderX said:
Perhaps in the West, but it started getting used in the USSR when they couldn't supply enough anti-biotics, then eventually they stopped bothering and the research had stagnated for decades, i'm pretty sure anyway.
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There are a number of links in the comments on the history of the research. But yes - pretty much
 
d_brennen said:
Using a virus to kill what antibiotics can't.

What could possibly go wrong? :p
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Many things, but it should probably be manageable. Phages have been around far longer than humans have and as far as I know none of them infect humans at all, ever, despite routine exposure to them for a couple of hundred thousand years. They tend to be so specialised that they only infect a specific type of bacteria. Unless people engineer phages in a way that results in making them able to infect human cells (either deliberately or unintentionally), we should be fine. It should be a much better long term solution than antibiotics because the resistance issue is far less of a problem. Bacteria have had many millions of years to evolve resistance to phages and they haven't come anywhere near doing so.

We need something to replace antibiotics and we need it as soon as possible. Phages look like the best bet.
 
Angilion said:
Many things, but it should probably be manageable. Phages have been around far longer than humans have and as far as I know none of them infect humans at all, ever, despite routine exposure to them for a couple of hundred thousand years. They tend to be so specialised that they only infect a specific type of bacteria. Unless people engineer phages in a way that results in making them able to infect human cells (either deliberately or unintentionally), we should be fine. It should be a much better long term solution than antibiotics because the resistance issue is far less of a problem. Bacteria have had many millions of years to evolve resistance to phages and they haven't come anywhere near doing so.

We need something to replace antibiotics and we need it as soon as possible. Phages look like the best bet.
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Wasn't it a phage that was modified that couldn't have wiped out nearly all plant life as it killed the bacteria that break down stuff on thier roots or something

Sure it was Monsanto in the 90s or something.


Extinction level event potentially
 
Tefal said:
Wasn't it a phage that was modified that couldn't have wiped out nearly all plant life as it killed the bacteria that break down stuff on thier roots or something

Sure it was Monsanto in the 90s or something.


Extinction level event potentially
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I remember that, but I don't remember whether or not it was a phage. It's a good point, though, even if it wasn't a phage. An organism engineered with good intentions can still be extremely dangerous. Genetic engineering removes a lot of restrictions and humans are not perfect at predicting all possible outcomes of something. If I recall correctly, that incident (which I agree was potentially an extinction level event) was only stopped by one expert realising the unintended consequence.
 
terley said:
We also used Electricity 100,000 years ago!! Granted it was static.. and we didnt know what it was, but still!
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How was that discovered? What evidence would still remain? What would people 100,000 years ago have used static electricity for?
 
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