Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Put an End To Smelly Socks

Posted by samzenpus on from the never-do-laundry-again dept.

athe!st writes "A new anti-microbial treatment that can make clothing — including smelly socks — permanently germ-free has been developed by US scientists. In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, Dr Jason Locklin and his colleagues state that the treatment kills a wide range of dangerous pathogens, including staph, strep, E. coli, pseudomonas and acinetobacter."

1 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes, Great... by pclminion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some microbes literally shit alcohol.

    Such organisms consume food and excrete alcohol until the ambient concentration is too high for them to tolerate any longer. After years of selective breeding some yeasts have been produced that can tolerate up to about 22% ABV but it doesn't seem to go much higher than that.

    How many days could you take a shit in your living room until you could no longer tolerate it? I doubt any amount of evolutionary pressure could enable you to swim in a diarrhea swimming pool.