Scientists Put an End To Smelly Socks 238
athe!st writes "A new anti-microbial treatment that can make clothing — including smelly socks — permanently germ-free has been developed by US scientists. In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, Dr Jason Locklin and his colleagues state that the treatment kills a wide range of dangerous pathogens, including staph, strep, E. coli, pseudomonas and acinetobacter."
Great... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Better living through chemicals (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't have any air contact your skin? no moisture? no cloths? hmm, maybe you should narrow it down from 'chemicals'?
Re:Yes, Great... (Score:4, Insightful)
Since alcohol literally dissolves cell membranes, I'd be pretty impressed if they evolved past that impediment. Also remember that those bacteria that 'shit' alcohol are eventually killed off by all that 'shit'. That's why you can't brew vodka, but distill it instead.
Re:Yes, Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
Some microbes literally shit alcohol.
Such organisms consume food and excrete alcohol until the ambient concentration is too high for them to tolerate any longer. After years of selective breeding some yeasts have been produced that can tolerate up to about 22% ABV but it doesn't seem to go much higher than that.
How many days could you take a shit in your living room until you could no longer tolerate it? I doubt any amount of evolutionary pressure could enable you to swim in a diarrhea swimming pool.
Re:Yes, Great... (Score:4, Insightful)