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Bacteria-Killing Viruses Wield an Iron Spike
sciencehabit writes "Scientists have long known that a group of viruses called bacteriophages have a knack for infiltrating bacteria and that some begin their attack with a protein spike. But the tip of this spike is so small that no one knew what it was made of or exactly how it worked. Now a team of researchers has found a single iron atom at the head of the spike, a discovery that suggests phages enter bacteria in a different way than surmised (abstract)."
Yeah, that's why life expectancy has been going up for the last two centuries or so. But don't let get facts in the way :)
To be fair, life expectancy has been going up for the last 200(,000) odd years because in that time we have discovered and learned how to do something about some of the things that used to kill us early - you know, starting with predators, and moving on through weather and famine right up to bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, and influenza.
These days we have a tendency to live long enough for other things to kill us early. (Often it's ourselves - we haven't been able to do anything about that one yet!)
Life is an arms race, in which life only ever wins by beating its opponent, life.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
I can tell you what's killing us early right now. Diet. Toxic chemicals - in particular inorganic ones.
Inorganic ones?
So NaCl is dangerous, but organic compounds such as CH3OH are okay to consume? I'll remember that.
I think dumb stuff can actually improve your cognitive skills if you approach it properly. I hadn't thought about gravity like I should've until I saw how wrong everything was in the Star Trek reboot. I gained an understanding about something without taking in any new information simply by seeing how it was depicted so clearly wrong that I had to reconcile (almost) every notion I held about about gravity. Similarly, American politics never made sense to me until I understood how professional wrestling is booked, scripted, canonized, and repeated or redacted right in front of the audience.