Friendly Fungus Protects Our Mouths From Invaders 63
sciencehabit writes "When we talk about the human microbiome, bacteria usually get all the press. But microscopic fungi live in and on us, too. New research shows that a little-known fungus called Pichia lives in healthy mouths and may play an important role in protecting us from an infection caused by the harmful fungus Candida. The friendly fungus makes a substance that may even lead to a new anti-fungal drug."
Re:TMI (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes.
It's stuff that matters. In fact health matters a lot.
antibiotic soap (Score:5, Insightful)
Same goes for skin, as well. Wash your hands, but you don't have to "nuke bacteria from orbit." A lot of it is good for you and is there for a reason.
Scientists Discover That Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May Be Making You (and Society) Sick
http://blogs.scientificamerica... [scientificamerican.com]
Re:All eukaryotes are symbiotic systems. (Score:3, Insightful)
Places that were once ruled by the Ottoman empire you could have whole villages or clans where all males have exactly the same y chromosome and have very high degree of relatedness. Such populations would pledge allegiance to the clan and take great personal sacrifices for the sake of their clans or tribes or villages or their shieks.
Trying to impose a western style democracy of a society with a mean value r on to other societies with an order of magnitude different r would not work easily. Giving autonomy and self governance for people/tribes/clans with high degree of relatedness, but subject to collective punishments and rewards would be considered sacrilege in the West. But such practices are more likely to succeed, pacify the population and lead to peace.
There's an old Bedouin (who were part of the Ottoman empire for a while) saying: "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers"
Tribalism/clannism doesn't bring peace, it just structures violence and corruption differently while removing many of the checks and balances.
Re:Antiseptic Mouthwash Raises Heart Attack Risk (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to appreciate the irony that they find a new symbiotic fungus with clear health benefits and immediately try and use it to develop a novel way to kill fungus.
And the health benefit is that it puts out a substance that, err, umm, kills other fungus species, so "[killing] fungus" - or, to state it in a more accurate fashion, "killing other fungus species - is the clear health benefit.
So this is not any more ironic than, say, introducing a predatory mammal species to an ecosystem to cut down on the population of another mammal species.