Superslime for Superbugs: A company called AquaPharm claims to have found a new antibiotic that works on the antibiotic resistant superbacteria, methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Like most antibiotics, it comes from the less-savory regions of nature. In this case, from slime found in tide pools:

Several types of bacteria found by the five-person team produce an antibiotic that acts against the notorious hospital superbug, MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.)

One in particular is so effective it is already attracting keen interest from the big drug companies.

Dr Jonathan David, technical director at the scientists' company AquaPharm Bio-Discovery Ltd, told the Press Association: "It appears to be very potent in terms of what concentration is required to kill MRSA.

"It completely stops them dead, preventing any further growth and killing the existing bacteria."

..AquaPharm is keeping the identity of its MRSA-killing bacteria a closely guarded secret, and taken out patents on how they can be cultivated and used.

The bacteria produce a natural powerful antibiotic to fight off other bugs that might want to invade their colony sites.

They are collected by scraping off the surface slime from rocks, plants and invertebrates such as sea anemones.

It’s ironic, but most antibiotics are derived from chemicals produced by other bacteria. The story of penicillin’s discovery in a mold-contaminated petri dish is well known, but what is less well-known is that other antibiotics have similar origins.The first-aid antibioitc, Bacitracin, for example, was discovered in bacteria growing in a compound fracture of a little girl named Margaret Tracy (the “traci” portion of “Bacitracin.”) Erythromycin was derived from soil organisms found in the Iloilo province of the Phillipines, hence the brand-name Ilosone, and the first cephalosporin was isolated from a fungus found in Sardinian sewers (forgive the broken English). We owe a lot to dirt.