Could desert soil help fight superbugs? - bbc future
“Chile’s desiccated Atacama Desert was once considered a dead zone, but ingeniously adapted bacteria found living there could help us combat a major public health problem.”
In 2019 I wrote a feature for BBC Future about microbiologists hunting for new species of bacteria in the world’s most extreme environments.
As drug-resistant superbugs become an increasingly serious problem, the need to discover new antibiotics has never been greater. Some researchers believe the answer could lie in unique and unexplored ecosystems, where hardy colonies of bacteria have developed novel chemistry to survive.