Increasingly, doctors are finding that antibiotic drugs are not killing the infections they were meant to target. But a team of American geologists think a solution may be right under our feet: clay.
Many bacteria that make us sick are becoming resistant to antibiotic drugs. The germs’ genes have changed over several generations. And some of those changes have made the microbes immune to the medicines meant to kill them.
Clay, however, can kill these germs. But not just any clay will do, explains Lynda Williams. She’s a geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe. Clay that formed after the eruption of ancient volcanoes works best, she finds.
As water heated by a volcano moves through deposits of volcanic ash, it can change the chemistry of clay. And that can give that clay traits that are “important for healing,” Williams explains. Her team studied clay formed in association…
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