Star-shaped polymer kills superbug strains without antibiotics

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/26/star-shaped-polymer-kills-supe.html
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The only side effect is the loss of one’s immortal soul…

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Just think of them like tiny shuriken for your blood stream.

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I was thinking the microbial equivalent of swangas.

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structurally nanoengineered antimicrobial peptide polymers

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I will only buy this if they are marketed as “Oh, SNAPPs!”

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Just in time for the Syrian Civil War.

The correction appended to the story seems … awkward.

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Is Capt. Kirk afraid? Or is he mimicking the expression of a bacterium when two star-polymers approach?

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This is the coolest science story I’ve read in a long time.

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I’d really like to know why it will kill bacteria but not human cells. Is it strictly a matter of size? A lot of bacteria are about the same size as red blood cells, for example.

I can’t imagine the testing it’s going to need. Gad.

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What the fuck?

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So when I explain this to my coworkers I need to say, “They are YUUUUGGGGEEEE!”. Got it.

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It’s a trope in zombie movies that an unforeseen side affect of a new super cure causes inexplicably turns people into zombies. In “I am Legend” it’s a genetically engineered virus made to cure cancer.

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I’ve read stories like this before, and it sounds like brilliant and probably harmless technology. Hooray human ingenuity!

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A healthy cell, a bacterium, and a SNAPP walk into a bar…

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So I’m looking forward to injecting plastic -directly- into my blood stream and bypassing the middleman trying to sell me “bread” and “pasta”.

Jokes aside, what happens when this sucker oxides in my circulatory system? And can it pass the blood/brain barrier, murdering brain cells by the score like a tiny ball of death rolling over an even tinier village of very tiny people composed of dendrites?

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Plot twist: Many humans have been zombies since the introduction of pennicilin. Many only pretend to experience qualia. Some have even stopped pretending, insisting that inner experience doesn’t even exist.

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This is SO cool. The implications of this could be staggering. Think of the potential extrapolations:

  1. Venereal disease treatment just got stabby.

  2. Penis behavior suddenly makes sense. It’s pokey/stabby.

  3. That’s sharp. sharp Watch out.

  4. Obsidian rocks.

  5. I finally get human flags!

  6. Look up!

  7. Next?

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I wonder how many generations before the superbugs evolve to be immune to this.

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