Tiny hitchhikers on viruses could promote resistance to antibiotics
Knowing why could help keep infections at bay
FROM caesarean sections to chemotherapy, antibiotics make much of modern medicine possible by keeping bacterial infections at bay. That is why the growing bacterial resistance to those drugs is so worrying. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 infections with drug-proof bacteria could claim up to 10m lives a year, more than double the current toll.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Parasites all the way down”
From the August 12th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Science & technology
Are ice baths good for you?
They won’t hurt. Actually they might, a bit
Why carbon monoxide could appeal to the discerning doper
Professional cycling is debating whether to ban the poisonous gas
A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin
How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery
Heritable Agriculture, a Google spinout, is bringing AI to crop breeding
By reducing the cost of breeding, the firm hopes to improve yields and other properties for an array of important crops
Could supersonic air travel make a comeback?
Boom Supersonic’s demonstrator jet exceeds Mach 1
Should you worry about microplastics?
Little is known about the effects on humans—but limiting exposure to them seems prudent