Document KGaox0O4B8ZG8EGxrgkjMdbGX

New Scientist 26 January 1976 A new breed of drug-sensitive bacteria Clinicians around the world have become increastagty anxious over the past year about the spread of gonococci resistant to penkilUn (Now Scientist, vol 72, p 3k --Now comes a surprising report from two bacteriologists at the University of North Caroline sheet strains of the bacteria which are ultra-smsitree to tWe and other antibiotics. Among isolated from gonorrhoea victims to North Carolina, London, Rotterdam, and the Far East, they have found _ with a mutation making them highly susceptible to a variety of drugs. Such mutants have been detected laboratory strains before, but this is first report of the isolation of sensitive organisms from patients. "Paradoxically, antibiotic usage may be selecting gonococci with both grtetu Mi*.- > > k antibiotic resistance and, indirectly, greater sensitivity," write Drs Barry Soviet space progress TIn tactics behind the Soviet space programme became dearer last weekend when an unmanned "automatic transport spaceship" took supplies to the Salynt fi/Soyoi 27 space complex. Named Progress 1, the new "cargo ship" took fuel and scientific equipment to Yuri Romanenko and Georgy Grechko, who went into orbit early in November. Unmanned space transports will make it possible for the Soviet astronauts to stay in orbit for long periods. The success of the latest venture--with both manned and unmanned vehicles docking with the space station--shows that tha Soviets have made considerable progress in automatic docking. Eisenstein and Frederick Sperling to Nature (voi 271, p 242). They barn i argument on the fact that their btoure strains grow more quickly (in the test tube, and presumably also to the body) than the resistant bacteria from '' ` they arose. One type, it seems, her selective advantage in resisting a biotics, the other in multiplying faster. Eisenstein and Sperling's discovery Electrons cut PCBs in drinking water two practical implications. Gonorrhoea caused by a hyper-sensitive strain alone Organic compounds such as DOT the initial contaminant." (ie not mixed with resistant organisms) PCBs do not dissolve readily in water yet At the moment the only alternative should be particularly vulnerable to ante they cae be exceedingly dangerous to treatment is osonisatioa requiring lengthy biotics. But untreated, snch an infection fish and other animals including human storage in large-scale holding reservoirs. could develop more quickly. beings who drink contaminated water With an electron beam the entire chemi The resistance/sensitivity in question because the chemicals accumulate hi cal reaction takes place in the flowing is independent qf the production of their fat tissues. Edward Merrill of the water in seconds. Dr Merrill foresees the penicillinase, the ensyme which protects Chemical Engineering Department of the technique being used to decontaminate some bacteria against penicillin. It may Mastechmstts Institute of Technology munidpa) drinking water. be associated with change in protein in (MIT) has discovered that normal radia tion doses es high as 40 000 rads which will disinfect sewage sludge also de grade these compounds. In laborstory tesla to try out electron bombardment, Dr Merrill said that the proposed process represents an "unfinished story". Many other compounds may be success fully treated in the same way. O the cell membrane. Earlier studies have shown that this type of sensitivity muhes gonococci vulnerable not only to anti biotics, but also to detergents end dyes. be seed a Van da Graaff generator to irradiate pure water and seup/wuter snp pensions (model systems of PCS com tnminntioa of the environment) end feend that in the first case a dose of 10 hUarads er laaa eliminated 96 per cent of the Hssriond PCB. In the "stodge" amdei, a much higher Horn of 400 Into rude was mullet He also showed that the hmttdde "nmouron" was rimllariy broken dew* Ha believes the electron ` ' mint of the water splits the water molecule tale two fragments one of which, the hydroxyl radical, attaches " i the PCB, making it Industrial liquid could dissolve vision Long-term exposure to industrial solvents csuld came faults In memory end visual defects, irnardtag to paper by Herbert Schaumburg end Peter Spencer in Science (vel 199, p 99). Spencer and Schaumburg fed cels 2,-hesanedione, e metobeBU ef ' Aa woB as degenerative changes in the peripheral narvene system, which alaa showed up to earlier experiments, they abe noted degeneration to areas ef the hah responsible far visual process- cause many ef the _. cases that Sectors see Involve acuta, eel bug-term, petering. Spencer and Schaumburg pradtet: "I seems Ufcety that prubuged, low-level industrial er environmental rapaenri to n-hexena er to the ether envIruameuteBp prominent compounds that evoke dbtel xeuaprihy {that la, destroy peripheral uervee) wflB .................... " areas ef the be vital to i torisbu." They tog and memory. There have been eceaetenal reporta ef visual end memory accelerated deterioration to problems among people sxpaaad to mwtoltom." Aa If to faUH the prophecy* mutagenic activity- "On tbo other we een state without hesitation that the total ooeciutrerim ef tne transformed products cannot be higher than that ef jthexane, hat them are rare. The Science paper anggaots that them effects are nn- remeian bsrsam tow doctors measure vbual functions to patients suffering from f-fr--*~g by Industrial mlvenls and be e feetneto to Iheb paper prints net that ana of these compound!, aasybuMMe has ahead? been found (by rarchera) to causa prscbafo the neural changes they peudkt _D HONS 002192