rubl
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
The wondering type
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Post by rubl on Mar 15, 2018 22:12:16 GMT 7
Now I know that some here think badger milk is the answer to all ailments but down under they have different ideas "Platypus milk: unlikely weapon in fight against superbugs Australian biologists solve the puzzle of why monotreme’s milk is so potent against bacteria They are duck-billed, egg-laying, semi-aquatic mammals with poisonous spurs on their webbed feet: the Australian platypus is so weird that early European zoologists thought it must be an elaborate hoax. But now a team of Australian scientists have found something else unique to the strange little animals: their milk has a novel chemical structure that could be used to fight superbugs." www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/15/platypus-milk-unlikely-weapon-in-fight-against-superbugs
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AyG
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
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Post by AyG on Mar 16, 2018 8:27:03 GMT 7
"But now a team of Australian scientists have found something else unique to the strange little animals: their milk has a novel chemical structure that could be used to fight superbugs." Why, oh why, don't newspapers employ people who are scientifically literate? There are so many things wrong with that sentence. (1) They are hardly "little animals", weighing up to 2.4 kg. (2) Their milk does not have "a novel chemical structure" - a protein within the milk has one. (3) There is no evidence that the "novel chemical structure" gives platypus milk its antibacterial properties. The scientists only tested the complete protein for antibacterial properties, not the isolated "novel chemical structure". Indeed, they didn't even go as far as to suggest that the primary role of the protein is as an antibacterial, they wrote "this novel structure may either indicate a different mechanism of action for protection or suggest other roles in development of the suckled young". And they most certainly didn't suggest it "could be used to fight superbugs", but rather wrote "This may offer a novel drug composition which could potentially be used as a new therapeutic." - note the "may" and "potentially". Original paper at: journals.iucr.org/f/issues/2018/01/00/cb5104/index.html
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