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[MetalSlimeHunt]

Oh Helgo, don't you know? Math is just the overarching support of racist hegemonic imperialism used to keep down everybody who doesn't bow down to the bigoted capitalist order as a slave. Only the primacy of radical epistemological reform over the dictatorship of math will save the oppressed.

[Putnam]

science is study of the natural world while mathematics is the study of the behavior of certain axiomatic systems that do not necessarily reflect the natural world

it is not a guarantee that science is a subset of math but it sure as hell looks like it is so far, so it's best to assume that it is since there's absolutely no point in science if the universe itself has no consistency (which, again, sure as hell looks untrue)

[Max™]

Well, if you want to bring math in with science as a subset, then if science is truly powerful as a mathematical theory it can not prove itself complete or consistent, but incompleteness seems the more useful assumption to work under anyways.

[scrdest]

Math, it seems to me, seems to work more like doing metaphysics in machine code.

[Furtuka]

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-science-world-s-freaking-out-over-this-25-year-old-s-solution-to-antibiotic-resistance
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/health/does-this-25-year-old-hold-the-key-to-winning-the-war-against-th/

[Starver]

Before I click on either of those links, I must say I wouldn't be surorised to also see "Microbiologists hate this 25-year-olds one easy trick!" as well...

[Furtuka]

I had to use the bathroom at the time and didn't feel like taking the time to search for a less clickbaiting link.

Gimme a sec

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/superbugs/7844048
http://inhabitat.com/student-discovers-a-way-to-destroy-superbug-bacteria-without-antibiotics/
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/beyond-antibiotics-starshaped-protein-kills-feared-superbugs-20160912-grehpx.html

there you go

[Sheb]

Yay, new antibiotics!

[hops]

That actually sounds cool but it also sound like the polymers will give you cancer.

Or something. I don't know, it just feels like as far as medical science is concerned getting people to not die is really hard.

[Sheb]

Well, there is a loooooong bunch of possible issues, and the spin is quite impressive, but yeah, it's cool.

[hops]

Also I still don't get why the bacteria don't evolve to be more structurally sound.

[scrdest]

Also I still don't get why the bacteria don't evolve to be more structurally sound.

That's not how evolution works. You can't just redesign the whole damn cell wall in one fell swoop.

It's like Jenga: you can take a single piece out and change how it's working, if it has some redundancy in what it did originally - because otherwise it breaks down; you can't rip out a whole chunk in the middle, build a (house/different wall structure) out of it, then put it back in the original structure with the changes, because a) it's impossible to edit multiple parts at once, b) even if it weren't, the structure is not modular, if you change a chunk of it, you have to change ALL of the whole thing to still support each other.

If the way those thingies work depends on specific protein interactions, bacteria would be able to evolve resistance, because it's just a matter of mutating the single recognized part of the target molecule.

[Descan]

Most antibiotics are like, really targeted, just one protein or structure or process being affected. That's why bacteria can mutate to survive it. If it's a sledgehammer instead of a Kung-Fu movie style pressure-point grab, then it can't mutate fast enough or at all.

The problem is that a lot of those sledgehammer targets are important and non-easily mutatable because they're so fundamental to life that humans also share those processes. It's hard to find a sledgehammer that only targets bacteria, and even harder to target only bad bacteria.

I mean, you can kill 100% of bacterial cells in a lab. Just use a gun.

[x2yzh9]

Also I still don't get why the bacteria don't evolve to be more structurally sound.

That's not how evolution works. You can't just redesign the whole damn cell wall in one fell swoop.

It's like Jenga: you can take a single piece out and change how it's working, if it has some redundancy in what it did originally - because otherwise it breaks down; you can't rip out a whole chunk in the middle, build a (house/different wall structure) out of it, then put it back in the original structure with the changes, because a) it's impossible to edit multiple parts at once, b) even if it weren't, the structure is not modular, if you change a chunk of it, you have to change ALL of the whole thing to still support each other.

If the way those thingies work depends on specific protein interactions, bacteria would be able to evolve resistance, because it's just a matter of mutating the single recognized part of the target molecule.

you know this reminds me of how my brother said automotive mechanics work. You can't just take out something and put something new in without reworking the whole vehicle. Just an apology I thought I should provide

[Max™]

Plus, selection against something means survivors need to breed more than those vulnerable to it. If bacteria could change their hardware on the fly to resist antibiotics it would be like altering your car while you're driving it to avoid a crash, and I don't mean active aerodynamics, I mean like rebuilding the car as it rolls so it is in a different place and doesn't get in a collision.