The over prescription of the current antibiotics has lead to resistant bacteria. If this keeps up we will be catapulted 100 years back to when a routine surgery would likely kill you due to infection that cant be treated with anything but amputation.
Will you fucking shut up and take your medication. Look around you, how many people run out of hospitals dissolving in protoplasmic goo because of untreated bacterial infection? Yes it's a problem. Not an especially big one, actually.
Rampant, unrestrained paranoia is another, bigger problem.
Yes, the HIV scare did run up a lot of money for what is a relatively small problem, but the entire biomedical funding system in the US is at risk for this sort of 'disease of the year' problem. Sure, if we decided to pour a big enough pile of money in this guy's way we would make some progress but this isnt the only field of science that could use more money.
And it's not quite true that the ID institute 'just' funded virology. A lot of scientists shut their mouths and started pounding on typewriters (remember, this started in the '80's) because this was essentially basic research. It's not clear that it led to treatments for HIV any faster than a less intense program but it did spin off a number of important, basic research topics. There was a fair amount of money in bacteriologic and basic eukaryote biology as well.
In the long run, less political manipulation of scientific goals and more robust, long term funding would help many fields of science but that's another rant.
Leaving out the Strum Und Drang for a moment, lets look the TFA. You have this interesting character that runs around and looks for novel biologics. This isn't really breaking new ground - there are thousands of people out in various biomes doing exactly that. Seems like our good prospector has had some success taking a few chemicals and doing some basic research on them with potentially useful results. Kinda neat way to make a living actually.
The article gets more than a little squishy when it talks about the End of the Antibiotic World As We Know It and makes it sound like we're all going to die in a septic heap because of the transgressions of our society. While there is some validity to the 'superbug' hypothesis, it really is only an edge problem. Some people die of multidrug resistant infections, but not many. The antibiotics we have work pretty well.
So, from an economic standpoint, Big Pharma has a point. It costs one hell of a lot of money to take a random, complex molecule and try to make an economic product out of it. Remember, it's pretty easy to get a molecule to destroy a bacterium - Chlorox works great and is rather inexpensive. It's just hard to get a molecule that targets ONLY a bacterium (or cancer cell) and leaves the rest of the organism alone. So this guy has his work cut out for him and has a lot of competition in other "bioprospectors". His business plan is not in it for the long run of taking a molecule from the field to the syringe - he wants to go back out into the field and get more critters to play with. He wants somebody else to do the real grunt work.
Yep, the system could work better but it sounds like this guy needs to start writing a few NSF grants.
Hospital billing rates and contract insurance reimbursement rates are no great secret. Government reimbursement rates are certainly no secret (medicare/medicaid).
All you have to do is fight your way through a pair of F18's and bog know what else is chasing it. I don't think anybody is going to claim salvage rights on this puppy.
The military should be careful with those things. Some people might think that a military surveillance drone "randomly" getting too close is an act of war.
As opposed to having a cable dragging on the ground, destroying everything in it's path?
Sort of but not quite. Hydrogen peroxide is an equal opportunity oxidizer. Whether it comes in contact with a bacterial cell wall or your own, it will create free radicals and set up a romper / stomper pathway that will chew up most anything biological. Now, if you likewise rinsed your mouth out with some handy - dandy quaternary amine like Benzalkonium chloride, both you and your commensal bacteria would be in a world of hurt.
The idea behind this system is the active compounds are covalently bound to the teeth so they can't wander off and dissolve, for example, your tonsils. Geofencing the downsides.
Wander around Israel for a bit. Then get into a fight with one of the little tiny women in uniform.
Then expect to hurt for a little while afterwards. Not everything in life is brute force. Not even combat.
Think about it. Japanese soldiers, especially in WWII were several inches shorter and dozens of pounds lighter than the average GI. They fought pretty damned well. Same for Vietnam.
The problem is that you are (presumably) a normal human not totally wound up on bad cocaine, worse amphetamines and some Krokodil along with a fifth of really bad whiskey. Those people need rhinoceros-class weapons to stop effectively.
Slashdot Mirror
This is why we need to vote in a government that does care. Otherwise nothing will happen. The choice is ours.
What, Twilight Sparkle for President?
The market isn't shrinking at all.
The over prescription of the current antibiotics has lead to resistant bacteria. If this keeps up we will be catapulted 100 years back to when a routine surgery would likely kill you due to infection that cant be treated with anything but amputation.
Will you fucking shut up and take your medication. Look around you, how many people run out of hospitals dissolving in protoplasmic goo because of untreated bacterial infection? Yes it's a problem. Not an especially big one, actually.
Rampant, unrestrained paranoia is another, bigger problem.
Turn OFF the TV.
Yes, the HIV scare did run up a lot of money for what is a relatively small problem, but the entire biomedical funding system in the US is at risk for this sort of 'disease of the year' problem. Sure, if we decided to pour a big enough pile of money in this guy's way we would make some progress but this isnt the only field of science that could use more money.
And it's not quite true that the ID institute 'just' funded virology. A lot of scientists shut their mouths and started pounding on typewriters (remember, this started in the '80's) because this was essentially basic research. It's not clear that it led to treatments for HIV any faster than a less intense program but it did spin off a number of important, basic research topics. There was a fair amount of money in bacteriologic and basic eukaryote biology as well.
In the long run, less political manipulation of scientific goals and more robust, long term funding would help many fields of science but that's another rant.
Leaving out the Strum Und Drang for a moment, lets look the TFA. You have this interesting character that runs around and looks for novel biologics. This isn't really breaking new ground - there are thousands of people out in various biomes doing exactly that. Seems like our good prospector has had some success taking a few chemicals and doing some basic research on them with potentially useful results. Kinda neat way to make a living actually.
The article gets more than a little squishy when it talks about the End of the Antibiotic World As We Know It and makes it sound like we're all going to die in a septic heap because of the transgressions of our society. While there is some validity to the 'superbug' hypothesis, it really is only an edge problem. Some people die of multidrug resistant infections, but not many. The antibiotics we have work pretty well.
So, from an economic standpoint, Big Pharma has a point. It costs one hell of a lot of money to take a random, complex molecule and try to make an economic product out of it. Remember, it's pretty easy to get a molecule to destroy a bacterium - Chlorox works great and is rather inexpensive. It's just hard to get a molecule that targets ONLY a bacterium (or cancer cell) and leaves the rest of the organism alone. So this guy has his work cut out for him and has a lot of competition in other "bioprospectors". His business plan is not in it for the long run of taking a molecule from the field to the syringe - he wants to go back out into the field and get more critters to play with. He wants somebody else to do the real grunt work.
Yep, the system could work better but it sounds like this guy needs to start writing a few NSF grants.
I take it you've never worked in a hospital. Or a law office.
Hospital billing rates and contract insurance reimbursement rates are no great secret. Government reimbursement rates are certainly no secret (medicare/medicaid).
It's really quite easy:
How much money do you have? ....
Give it to us
Yes, damnit. It's just Endless September gone exponential.
My head would asplode except there is nothing left inside it.
The Weather Company is the parent company of The Weather Channel. They are 70% owned by the Rothchilds.
I just knew it! It's a Zionist conspiracy to control the weather!
All you have to do is fight your way through a pair of F18's and bog know what else is chasing it. I don't think anybody is going to claim salvage rights on this puppy.
The military should be careful with those things. Some people might think that a military surveillance drone "randomly" getting too close is an act of war.
As opposed to having a cable dragging on the ground, destroying everything in it's path?
When in trouble,
Or in doubt.
Run in circles,
Scream and shout.
Seriously, you want to spend 10% of the US military's entire budget on one line item?
For faster Netflix streaming? You're damned well right I do. Where are your priorities?
And in 20 years, everyone will wonder why nobody saw the end coming.
That is because they had their heads stuck up their ass.
We had a VP here smash hers in front of our COO.
I'd love to work at a place where C level employees trash laptops in front of each other. None of this quiet desperation stuff.
Action! Excitement!
In a pissing contest, you always want to be on the downwind side.
(And WTF /. - you're messing things up again. Can't moderate, the posting dialog box reminds me of one of beta's really bad days. )
All your base (pairs) are belong to us!
(Along with all of your proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and damned well everything else you have.)
Nope. I'm quite sure they mean these bad boys. These NSA-types play mean and dirty.
Cthulhu for President. Why vote for the lesser evil?
Sort of but not quite. Hydrogen peroxide is an equal opportunity oxidizer. Whether it comes in contact with a bacterial cell wall or your own, it will create free radicals and set up a romper / stomper pathway that will chew up most anything biological. Now, if you likewise rinsed your mouth out with some handy - dandy quaternary amine like Benzalkonium chloride, both you and your commensal bacteria would be in a world of hurt.
The idea behind this system is the active compounds are covalently bound to the teeth so they can't wander off and dissolve, for example, your tonsils. Geofencing the downsides.
Hell, I'd be happy if someone managed to add opiate pathway genes to a coffee bean.
Great expectations and all that.
Wander around Israel for a bit. Then get into a fight with one of the little tiny women in uniform.
Then expect to hurt for a little while afterwards. Not everything in life is brute force. Not even combat.
Think about it. Japanese soldiers, especially in WWII were several inches shorter and dozens of pounds lighter than the average GI. They fought pretty damned well. Same for Vietnam.
Don't fight a land war in Asia.
The problem is that you are (presumably) a normal human not totally wound up on bad cocaine, worse amphetamines and some Krokodil along with a fifth of really bad whiskey. Those people need rhinoceros-class weapons to stop effectively.
Or a firehose. But they're hard to hand carry.
Blackhawks are for little girlymen. Real men carry a Ruger Redhawk in .480 Ruger caliber.
The only handgun you can use to beat a grizzly bear into submission after you miss six times.
Anyway, that's a feature - not a bug. When you've run out of ammo, you want to be able to run faster.
It's called enlightened self interest. Interesting concept.