Superbugs stung by honey bees
Link: BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Superbugs stung by honey bees.
Community associated MRSA is typically found in wounds and boils. Like many superbugs it can be difficult to treat. Professor Moore is a scientist who likes to draw on history to help solve the problems facing the modern hospital laboratory. Surrounded by his team, he explains that in medieval times, some physicians used rose honey to treat wounds soldiers received in battle. Those doctors understood that honey had healing and disinfecting properties and that set the City Hospital scientists thinking. And far from being the only team looking at the medicinal properties of honey, they found a number of other researchers around the world who were also interested. But what was the science underlying the healing powers of honey and could it be used to tackle superbugs like community MRSA? Those were the questions which Professor Moore and Japanese assistant Maeda Yasunori set about answering. As it happened another scientist at nearby Queen's University, Philip Earle, keeps bees as a hobby. The scientists got talking.
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