Superbugs

That Pliny the Elder. I feel obliged to write about Bacteria now, even though I've gone right off the idea.

Every Saturday in the Advertiser Review, on page 2, there is a thrilling science column called 'Can You Believe It?', written in such a way as to get people like me to read it. Sometimes I read it, and sometimes I don't. In the worst case scenario I read half of it. That means I really tried to read it but the professor or PhD student who wrote it was a bad communicator. Last Saturday I read all about Superbugs, and learned this interesting fact.

Bacteria are evolving ways to resist penicillin and other antibiotics, as everyone knows, but the reason they are so good at it is because they can share genes. Who knew that? Not me. What happens is, when bacteria cells die other bacteria sort through their DNA debris and when they find anything that helps them to do something better, they incorporate the DNA into their chromosomes. You have to admire that don't you, whatever else you might think of the greedy little gobblers.

I'm glad I wrote that now. Pliny will be impressed. How would he know anything about bacteria?