Meet the Deadly Bacteria Whose Story Is a Curious Mix of Hope and Danger
The ‘Elizabethkingia’ Strain Could Cure Malaria, but It’s Also Sickened Dozens in Wisconsin
Back in 1948, Milton Berle had a TV show where he’d greet his audience with “Good evening, ladies and germs!” This was considered hysterically funny, and so absurd: Germs were thought to be bit players in the great drama of humanity, newly kept in line by antibiotics. But in the last 10 years, new ways of identifying bacteria genetically have turned the joke on its head. Technically, 60 percent of Berle’s audience was germs, because it’s now clear that a person consists of approximately 30 trillion cells of us and …
