The end of the second world war brought many changes with it. Among them was widespread availability of penicillin. For the first time, there was a generally available drug that was able to deal with bacterial infections. It meant serious injuries and surgeries did not also risk life-threatening infections, and turned many illnesses that previously could have easily killed you into nuisances.

But antibiotics have become a victim of their success. Since they are so effective at killing bacteria, they’re prescribed all the time, even for livestock. That pressured bacteria to become resistant to them. And in recent years, these superbugs have started to become a real problem, so much so that certain antibiotics are no longer prescribed. The idea is that if no one gets these antibiotics, then bacteria won’t evolve resistance to them, and doctors will at least have a last-resort antibiotic available if someone is infected with a superbug.

But recent superbugs have thwarted even those last-resort antibiotics. This is a problem not just for doctors and hospitals, but for everyone: Diseases that we think of as an annoyance can easily become deadly if no antibiotics are available to treat it.

But there is hope on the horizon, and it comes from an unlikely side: viruses¹. They, too can be a scourge for us humans, and unlike bacterias, we don’t have drugs that work against all viruses, only specific ones. And a certain group of these viruses, called bacteriophages, specifically targets bacteria, usually very specific ones. And scientists have recently been able to use one of these phages to cure a patient infected with a superbug.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean phages are ready for prime time yet. There are many obstacles to solve first, like the fact that our own immune system might start attacking these phages. But the good news is that bacteria that have evolved to be resistant to antibiotics are apparently especially vulnerable to phages, and those that have evolved to resist phages are vulnerable to antibiotics. So as more superbugs are found, there might be light at the end of the tunnel yet.

Peeking Behind the Curtain

If you watch the credits of any recent movie, you’re likely to see a small army of special effects people. In action movies, they make up the biggest group by far. But what exactly to they do? Polygon takes a look at the people who made the VFX for Avengers: Endgame, and what their jobs entail (spoiler-free).

Winning the Lottery

It’s probably a common daydream of many: What would you do if you won the lottery? No, seriously, what would that sudden financial windfall mean for your life? Topic has asked 15 people that received life-changing money what they did with it.

Charge: Conspiracy to Murder

There was a time where Internet Explorer, version 6, was the dominant browser. Most people used it, often not by choice, but because it was mandated by their companies. But web developers hated developing for it, as it had many bugs and annoying idiosyncrasies that made a dev’s life unnecessarily hard. Worse, there were far better alternatives available. So when a group of YouTube engineers got fed up with IE6, they conspired to kill IE6.

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Jim Allison doesn’t like doing things the usual ways. And that might have lead him to a potential major discovery: Jim Allison and the Search For the Cure For Cancer.

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