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Cockroaches may make your skin crawl, but the insects—or, to be exact, their brains—could one day save your life.
That's because the central nervous systems of American cockroaches produce natural antibiotics that can kill off bacteria often deadly to humans, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and toxic strains of Escherichia coli, scientists said this week.
Two species of locust tested so far also have the same bacteria-killing molecules in their tiny heads.
The findings suggest that the insect world—which makes up 80 percent of all animals on Earth—may be teeming with new antibiotics, said study co-author Simon Lee of the University of Nottingham in the U.K.
Cockroach Brains May Hold New Antibiotics?
Seeded on Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:19 AM EDT
Article Source: National Geographic- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
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If I were inclined toward science fiction outcomes, I could foresee the extinction of the cockroach here. Humans find a way to synthesize the antibiotic, they begin distributing it worldwide, it becomes widely- and over-prescribed, the bacteria figure out how to become resistant, cockroaches eventually succumb to something they could naturally fight off just decades before.
- 1 vote
#1 - Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:23 AM EDTThis is so interesting, even tho I use to have recurring nightmare about those big ones. Just knowing that we are still finding miracles in unexpected places keeps my sense of wonder alive.
You are probably right about man's abuse. That's how we got here. And I really don't care if cockroaches become extinct! lol
- 1 vote
#2 - Sun Sep 12, 2010 1:03 PM EDTWould be ironic, however, wouldn't it? For years they've talked about how cockroaches would be crawling out of the nuclear ash after we destroy ourselves. Now here's a chance for a reverse outcome, though we may end up being the only ones left.
Maybe the cockroaches left crawling through the ash would be .........us!
- 1 vote
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