there was a series in the nytimes about the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA) in pig-farms and pork products, mostly because the agricultural industry pumps little piggies full of antibiotics to ensure they don't get sick in the crowded and insanitary conditions of a factory farm.
it would be a good idea to avoid eating any factory-farm-reared chickens, pigs, lamb, or beef. there were the bizarre cases of the contact lenses for chickens (yes, a real-live harvard business school case) to screw up their vision so they couldn't peck each other to death out of stress due to being confined to a 2-ft square enclosure their entire lives.
in fact, it would be a better idea to avoid eating any meat at all, despite the fact that the stuff is tasty.
and now isro guys have discovered some uv-resistant microbes in the stratosphere.
moral: the darn bugs evolve, and fast. we better be prepared for them to out-mutate our ability to kill them with new antibiotics. or else they are part of SETI (the search for extra-terrrestrial intelligence). scary prospects in both cases.
from the san jose mercury news:
Indian scientists using a balloon-borne probe say they have identified three new species of bacteria, highly resistant to UV radiation and not found on Earth, living in the upper stratosphere. Which raises the question: Did the critters work their way up from the planet, or did they come from somewhere out there? Said the scientists: "While the present study does not conclusively establish the extra-terrestrial origin of microorganisms, it does provide positive encouragement to continue the work in our quest to explore the origin of life."
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