All We Wanna Do is Eat Roach Brains (For The Antibiotics)

One of the great dangers of the future are drug resistant antibiotics. As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, drug-resistant bacteria are turning up pretty much everywhere. Fortunately, scientists at the University of Nottingham have discovered an effective antibiotic in something else pretty much everywhere: roaches. And we’re talking the bug, not the slang term.

Apparently the central nervous system of cockroaches is really good at killing drug-resistant bacteria; over 90% effective, in fact. This is a side effect of their being vile and nasty creatures; when you spend all day rolling in, sleeping in, and eating garbage, you need to have a pretty tough immune system to survive. Hence, roach brains are heavy with naturally-secreted antibiotics.

Really, we just have one question: who first thought of this, and what were they drinking? You can’t tell us this wasn’t a drunken bar bet. Oh, and if you didn’t get the reference in the title:

[ via PhysOrg ]