3 ms·
It's neat that so many life-saving compounds can be found in dirt. Another one is rapamycin, found in the soil of Easter island: > Georges Nógrády wasn’t looki
by ipsum2 5y ago
It's neat that so many life-saving compounds can be found in dirt. Another one is rapamycin, found in the soil of Easter island:
> Georges Nógrády wasn’t looking for cures when he divided Easter Island into 67 parcels and took a soil sample from each. The University of Montreal microbiologist was trying to understand why the islanders weren’t afflicted with tetanus, a bacterial infection often found in places with horses. Not only did horses outnumber the island’s inhabitants, but its people walked around barefoot—a notoriously easy way to pick up tetanus spores.
https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i29/Rapamycins-Secrets-Unearthed.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i29/Rapamycins-Secrets-Unear...
- hentrep 5y agoRadiolab did an incredible story on the history of rapamycin. Highly encourage everyone to give it a listen! https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/dirty-drug-and-ice-cream-tub https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/dirty...