MTS42 - Julian Davies - The Mysteries of Medicine's Silver Bullet
Meet the Microbiologist
English - January 20, 2010 21:04 - 23 minutes - 21.1 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratingsLife Sciences Science Natural Sciences Homepage Download IPFS Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: MTS41 - Sallie Chisholm - Harvesting the Sun
Next Episode: MTS43 - Rob Knight - The Microbes That Inhabit Us
In this episode I speak to Julian Davies, professor emeritus in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Davies is one of the world's experts on antibiotics. I talked to Davies about how the discovery of antibiotics changed the course of modern medicine, and how we now face a growing threat from the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We also talked about some enduring mysteries about antibiotics.
Most of us think of antibiotics as a way to kill microbes. But the fact is that microbes make antibiotics naturally, and for them, these molecules may not be lethal weapons. They may actually be a way to talk to other microbes.