Escape The Science Lab

There's nothing quite as stomach-churning as a pile of maggots. I used to work with someone that was into fishing. He would buy a box of them and put it in the lab fridge. Once or twice the lid came off, and we were met with a squirming mess when we opened the door. That's not counting the time he forgot they were in there, and they turned into flies.  We are naturally disgusted by some things because they spread diseases. Flies, vomit, puss, the list goes on. Would you be surprised if you went into a hospital and a doctor prescribed maggots to help heal a wound? That's right, maggots!  People with badly infected wounds can be prescribed maggots to help clean them. These particular maggots have been raised in sterile conditions, so please don't go rooting in the dustbin at home.  How does this work? Warning you shouldn't read this before your tea! Maggots like to eat dead or rotting material. That’s precisely what is in some nasty wounds. These wounds can be infecte...

  Here's a really bad science joke that I've heard. Why don't ants get sick? Because they have little anty bodies.  I'll get my coat. That's not the only link between ants and disease prevention. I was listening to a podcast the other day where the discussion was about antibiotic resistance. This is a huge problem, which has lots of doctors and scientists are very worried. Antibiotic resistance is when antibiotics no longer kill bacteria. You can take the tablets, but they won't make you better. To understand why doctors are concerned we need to look back at what life was like before antibiotics.   In 1941 Police Constable Albert Alexander was injured in an air raid. A small cut near his mouth became infected and he was taken to hospital.  The infection got worse, and he developed sepsis, which is when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts attacking your own organs. Most people who develop sepsis die. Doctors in 1941 were used to seeing people...