
What Comes After Antibiotics? Alternatives to Stop Superbugs (2013) - max0563
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/what-comes-after-antibiotic-5-alternatives-to-stop-superbugs
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dang
The original url [1] pointed to this one, so we changed it.

Submitters: Please double-check the articles you post for links to more
original sources. When one article is lifted from another, HN strongly prefers
the original.

1\. [http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/science-has-
found-...](http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/science-has-found-the-
answer-to-what-happens-when-antibiotics-fail/story-fnjwl2dr-1226787418714)

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lotsofmangos
IBM are also doing some amazing work in this area with their ninja polymer
nanotech -
[http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/nanomedicine.shtml#fbid...](http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/nanomedicine.shtml#fbid=klilCTIj3Vr)

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max0563
Yeah, a real effort is being made to counter this problem. It's a good thing
too, people don't really understand the real threat that antibiotic resistant
bacteria will.

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boredprogrammer
Phage Therapy.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy)

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balor123
Someone just needs to find a way to turn the bitcoin mining problem into an
antibiotic mining problem.

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dllthomas
I've heard that once you make mining "useful" for something other than
securing the block chain, some of the security guarantees break down.

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balor123
I'm pretty sure kittens are somehow harmed in the process too

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dllthomas
I'm not sure if you're making a point or goofing off.

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ISL
All solutions to the evolution of resistance are temporary.

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sliverstorm
Some are less temporary than others.

Bleach, for example. Autoclaves. Magma.

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grondilu
Well, we're talking about antibiotics so you want something that kills
bacteria without killing the cells of the person in which the bacteria are.

If what you're looking for is harmless for human cells, it's just a matter of
time until bacteria find a way to resist it.

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dllthomas
Well, reducing introduction of microbes to the interiors of human beings
reduces the need to deploy "antibiotics" in the sense of "sufficiently harmful
for bacteria, sufficiently harmless for humans". Not a complete solution, but
being better about reducing spread is probably a component - particularly in
the surgery portion of all this.

