http://boingboing.net Brain candy for Happy Mutants Sun, 19 May 2013 05:39:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 http://boingboing.net/2012/10/11/viruses-to-the-rescue.html http://boingboing.net/2012/10/11/viruses-to-the-rescue.html#comments Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:53:52 +0000 Maggie Koerth-Baker http://boingboing.net/?p=186756 Technology Review's list of 35 Innovators Under 35 includes Timothy Lu, an MIT researcher who is engineering viruses designed to seek out and destroy biofilms — bacterial colonies that stick together on a surface, like bits of pear suspended in the world's most disgusting jell-o salad. Biofilms have been implicated in human disease, especially chronic infections like those that can happen in the urinary tract and inner ear. But the first place Lu's biofilm-eating viruses will likely be put to work is cleaning out ducts in industrial HVAC systems. (Via Carl Zimmer)]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/10/11/viruses-to-the-rescue.html/feed 4