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Can we domesticate germs? - Paul Ewald

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Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea.

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What can you do to impact the spread of diseases both on a local and global scale?

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Avatar for blake cunzio
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if we can control the envirment alot more we can control the organisms and control diseadse


Avatar for alyssa Klassert
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if we are more aware on protecting ourselves from getting sick we can decrease on the diseases we spread


Avatar for Olaf C
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in response to Olaf C Show comment

The only worry I have with this is that I feel there is a chance it would backfire. We are forcing the organism to go through rapid changes to survive. It could become more virulent and milder so that it can spread without water as a vector but then it could bounce back later while being just as deadly as it used to be plus the added virulence. Or perhaps instead of become milder it evolves to be dormant for a longer period of time before it cripples its host along with added virulence. In which case we had unwittingly created a weaponized version of the disease: high amount of dormancy, virulence, and lethality. It is however a better solution than antibiotics and no one solution is perfect. I would also like to note that I am fairly uninformed and I am stating an unlikely worst-possible situation.


Avatar for Olaf C
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You could protect water supplies so that the disease is forced to allow its host to be healthy enough to transfer the pathogen physically. You could also protect houses from mosquitoes to prevent the people infected with a severe strain of malaria from passing it on to another mosquito. This inhibits the protozoans from completing their life cycle and gives an edge to the milder strains that will allow their victims to leave their bed and protected house to spread the disease. Both of these cases force the organism to evolve to take the path of least resistance. In which case is a path that suits our needs rather than the route a pathogen takes when faced with repeated doses of antibiotics and other medicines (a resistance to the treatments).