Event

The Threat of Superbugs

Infectious disease has been a big problem for living things since long before there were humans. Humans have used various medicines for thousands of years to reduce the impact of infectious disease, but the development of antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs over the last 100 years has been one of the greatest advancements in medicine. These drugs have saved countless lives from otherwise fatal infections. Unfortunately, this good news doesn’t last.

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C2ST in the News

The Threat of “Superbugs”

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By Paul Caine Producer, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight

Originally published at: https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2015/04/28/threat-superbugs

The World Health Organization warns that the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria or “superbugs” means that we could be on the brink of a “post-antibiotic era” in which common infections and minor injuries can once again kill. They say the situation is “so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine.” We talk with The University of Chicago’s Dr. Robert Daum and University of Illinois at Chicago’s Dr. Scott Franzblau about the scale of the threat and what we can all do to try and contain it.

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Press Release

The Threat of Superbugs

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The drugs we’ve relied on for over 70 years to keep us safe—from small cuts to deadly systemic infections—are becoming less effective.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which target multiple types of bacteria at once, are prescribed when more targeted drugs could be used. Or, antibiotics are prescribed for infections that are caused by viruses rather than bacteria, something antibiotics are useless against. In our homes, use of antibacterial products such as soap and cleansers is on the rise. And in the US, 80 percent of antibiotic use is on the farm, to prevent disease and promote growth in livestock.

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Event

LAKE FX: SCIENCE ON SCREEN workshop

“Science on Screen” will explore the ways that filmmakers and scientists can work together to maximize their creative, communicative, and commercial aims. Covering both documentary film and narrative drama, the workshop will examine how filmmakers can be inspired by real scientific research, and in turn, how working scientists can collaborate with artists to ensure their science is represented responsibly on screen.

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Blog Post

Large Hadron Collider is back in action!

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By Dr. Mark Oreglia

On Easter Sunday beam began to circulate again in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.  The world’s highest energy particle accelerator resumed operation after a two year shutdown to modify its magnets so it can collide protons at twice the former energy.  At half the energy, LHC “Run 1” discovered the Higgs boson; now scientists are excited to have a more powerful instrument to learn more about the Higgs boson and possibly see evidence of the Dark Matter in the universe (if it is due to a particle that can be produced in LHC proton collisions, of course). Continue reading “Large Hadron Collider is back in action!”