November 03, 2007

An antibiotic primarily used to treat pinkeye in humans rids frogs of the lethal fungal disease Chytridiomycosis that is wiping out amphibian populations around the world, a team of New Zealand scientists reports.
posted by Hank Mabuse 17 years ago
  • Yay! More frog legs for all!
  • That's good news, but as the nat geog article points out, distribution will be problematic.
  • Just pump it into the water. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
  • I hasten to point out that the recent media obsession with MRSA helps to demonstrate exactly WHY we should not be throwing antibiotics at yet another bacterial disease. The bloody bugs will EVOLVE right around the drug in short order.
  • Fungus, briank. Plus I'd gladly trade a potential drug-resistant fungus over the actual loss of all amphibian species on the planet, which is pretty much what we are facing. None of us would be here without amphibians. (I wouldn't even have a user name without amphibians.) SAVE THE FROGS!
  • We have a ready supply of chloramphenicol in our house most of the time. Someone give me some frogs to experiment on!
  • Mr. Frogs, sir, we am so sorry about the imminent demise of your namesakes, and we deeply regret the ruination of our world. If it's any consolation, we will no doubt perish with you, and perhaps in the coming millennium, fish, assuming there are any left, will evolve again into amazing amphibians. Thank you for a few billion years of company. Most of us enjoyed having you around.
  • Well, that does make me feel better, BlueHorse, but we all know that if mammals are out of the picture the squid will take over. Squid. Mark my words.
  • ACK! NOT THE SQUID!
  • Fucking A right. Don't piss me off.
  • Sometimes science and society can be so blind to obvious cause and effect. 1. Countries have been turning away from monarchies for years. 2. Even countries that do have monarchies produce fewer offspring. 3. There are fewer princes. 4. There are fewer frogs. Is any part of this difficult to understand? You want to save the frogs? Put some damn kings back in power.