
Fossilized human feces from 14th century contain antibiotic resistance genes - sillysaurus3
http://www.mdconnects.com/articles/598/20140228/fossilized-human-feces-14th-century-contain-antibiotic-resistance-genes.htm
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aroch
This isn't particularly surprising, I'm not sure why this is "big news". Many
antibiotics are naturally occurring and fairly common

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ars
Many?

I believe _all_ of them are based on antibiotics found in nature. They have
been modified somewhat for various reasons (including patents), but the basic
action hasn't changed.

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aroch
Not all, there are a bunch of commercial, synthetic antibiotics. I can think
of a few that aren't even sold for their antibiotic properties but instead
because of other beneficial effects such as depression treatment (MAOI)

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ars
MAOI led me to oxazolidinone which is indeed synthetic, so I stand corrected.
Still very rare to have a synthetic antibiotic, but I guess it does exist.

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thret
This is one of those annoying sites that will surprise you with a second auto-
playing video after you've paused the first one.

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db48x
Yea, I was surprised when Firefox opened a second infobar to ask me if another
flash plugin should be allowed, after I'd closed the first. I should probably
file a bug.

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yeukhon
Honest question: what is it in the photo. Looks like poo to me...

Speaking of finding antibiotic resistance in nature, I just learned that only
a few countries and cities are pushing household medication/drugs waste
disposal program. Basically drugs can contaminate soil and water, animals,
insects and bacteria can get sick or developed immunity to drugs. Sometimes
these drugs can be leathal to the environment. Imagine eating a fish which has
been living in a lake contaminated with human drugs!

[http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/healthwaste/householdpharm.html](http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/healthwaste/householdpharm.html)

