Stopping Superbugs, Powerful Pulsar, Hippo Poop

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, you’ll learn about new ways to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria, the discovery of the most powerful pulsar we’ve ever seen, and the truth about hippo poop.

Stopping Superbugs

“Dangerous ‘superbugs’ are a growing threat, and antibiotics can’t stop their rise. What can?” by Nicoletta Lanese. 2023.
“Retrospective, observational analysis of the first one hundred consecutive cases of personalized bacteriophage therapy of difficult-to-treat infections facilitated by a Belgian consortium.” by Jean-Paul Pirnay, et al. 2023.
“Lysin therapy offers new hope for fighting drug-resistant bacteria.” by Vincent A. Fischetti. 2019.

Powerful Pulsar

“Highest-energy pulsar ever seen could indicate new physics.” by Robert Lea. 2023.
“Discovery of a radiation component from the Vela pulsar reaching 20 teraelectronvolts.” by F. Aharonian, et al. 2023.
“What are pulsars?” by Paul Sutter. 2022.

Hippo Poop

“Hippos might be ferocious fighters, but their big teeth make terrible chewers.” by Jake Buehler. 2023.
“Hippos’ constant defecating turns African pools into communal guts.” by Lauren Barnett. 2021.
“Chewing, dentition and tooth wear in Hippopotamidae.” by Annika Avedik & Marcus Clauss. 2023.
“Hippo eating great animal in the world.” YouTube Video. N.d.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:08.6	Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff.
0:10.6	I'm Nate.
0:11.6	And I'm Callie.
0:12.4	If you're dropping in for the first time, welcome to
0:14.0	curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you're a loyal
0:17.8	listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn about new ways to kill antibiotic
0:21.8	resistant bacteria, the discovery of the most powerful
0:25.2	pulsar we've ever seen, and the truth about hippo poop.
0:29.7	Without further ado, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:33.0	By some estimates over a million people die every year as a direct result of antibiotic resistant
0:37.5	bacteria and nearly 5 million deaths a year are associated with antibiotic resistance. We've talked about antibiotic resistance before,
0:45.0	so I mean, I know it's a huge problem.
0:47.2	It really is.
0:48.8	The World Health Organization has declared antimicrobial resistance
0:51.8	as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
0:55.2	Since we've talked about it before, I know we've gone over it, but how exactly does this happen?
1:00.4	I mean, antibiotics were such an incredible medical breakthrough like what
1:04.4	changed what happened okay yeah let's let's get into this back in 1928 a
1:09.4	Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming was studying bacteria and sort of accidentally noticed that a mold called penicilium notatum was killing a bunch of different kinds of bacteria.
1:18.6	In the coming years that little chance discovery led to a huge array of bacteria busting drugs. But here's
1:24.5	the thing. Drugs like vaccines work by training our own immune systems to fight
	...

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