Researchers at Northeastern University have found a new antibiotic, the first new class of antibiotics discovered in nearly 30 years. The biggest news, they say, is that it appears to effective treat the growing number of superbugs we’ve been seeing lately like MRSA. It’s being hailed as one of the biggest game-changers in a long […]

Teixobactin is the first new class of antibiotic announced in decades. That news and even more importantly, the elegant way it was discovered, are the most exciting news I’ve seen in some time. Antibiotic development has stagnated as pharmaceutical companies have instead turned their attention to the far more profitable ventures of drugs for chronic […]

When elderly people fall, their default reaction is often to call an ambulance for help. Two Northeastern University undergraduates believe it doesn’t have to be that way. “If elderly people don’t know that they are able to get up on their own, they just assume, ‘I’ve fallen, I have to call 9-1-1, I have to […]

Delauter’s ludicrous assault on the First Amendment was easily batted away. But not all matters involving freedom of speech and of the press are as amusing or as trivial. You need look no further than the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, where the trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is about to begin […]

A handful of dirt from a field has yielded what may be the first of a new family of antibiotics. Early tests suggest this one has the potential to be especially powerful, providing a new weapon against the growing threat of drug-resistant superbugs. Scientists at Northeastern University in Boston and a small company called NovoBiotic […]

Scientists have discovered an antibiotic capable of fighting infections that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, a breakthrough that could lead to the field’s first major new drug in more than a quarter-century. The experimental drug, which was isolated from a sample of New England dirt, is called teixobactin. It hasn’t yet been […]

Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic, teixobactin, that can kill serious infections in mice without encountering any detectable resistance, offering a potential new way to get ahead of dangerous evolving superbugs. Researchers said the antibiotic, which has yet to be trialled in humans, could one day be used to treat drug-resistant infections caused by the […]

Since humans started making antibiotics for ourselves in the 1940s, bacteria have evolved to counteract our efforts. They are now winning. There are strains of old foes that withstand everything we can throw at them. Meanwhile, our arsenal has dried up. Before 1962, scientists developed more than 20 new classes of antibiotics. Since then, they […]

Experts said the use of Kalashnikov assault rifles and pump-action shotguns in the shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and the ease with which the attackers were able to flee the scene, suggest a high level of training and meticulous planning. “There were multiple attackers involved and they seem to be quite professional, unfortunately,” said […]

Similarly, fast-growing retailers like Warby Parker, Bonobos and Birchbox, all of which started as e-commerce ventures, have experimented with more traditional retail stores. Physical stores can also be useful when an e-commerce site has many customers in a concentrated geographic area, where they can serve as both a sales channel and an advertisement for the […]

Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic that may help turn the tide against the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs”. By using a method that grows bacteria in its native dirt rather than a lab dish, researchers from Northeastern University in Boston were able to identify a new, promising antibiotic called teixobactin, Nature reports.

Scientists travel to the farthest reaches of the planet to find new ways to fight infections, but an antibiotic pulled from dirt in Maine might be the biggest breakthrough in the field in the last 25 years. The experimental drug, called teixobactin, was found in a grassy field and was developed using new technology that […]