BBC Science Focus - 10.2019

Q&A

GETTY IMAGES X4, ALAMY X2 ILLUSTRATION: DAN

BRIGHT

Discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, the

antibiotic properties of penicillin, derived

from a species of Penicillium fungus, are still

widely used today, though many bacteria

have become resistant to the drug over time.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria

are regularly exposed to doses of antibiotic

that are not quite strong enough to kill all the

bacteria. In these situations, the antibiotics

only kill o the weakest bacteria, which leaves

the slightly stronger ones to multiply and

spread their more resistant genes. Blue cheese

does contain cultures of Penicillium mould.

You might therefore think that eating too

much blue cheese could have a similar eect

to antibiotic resistance, by overexposing the

bacteria in your body to Penicillium. However,

the strains of Penicillium that are used in

cheesemaking are dierent to the ones in the

drug, and don’t have any significant antibiotic

properties to begin with. Besides, they are

destroyed by your stomach acid anyway. LV

ABU YSUF YA‘QB

IBN ’ISHQ AS-

SABBH AL-KIND

HIDDEN

FIGRES

For centuries following the collapse of the

Roman Empire in the 5th Century, texts by

key thinkers from Ancient Greece, India

and elsewhere became lost to the world.

The texts still existed physically, but

during the Dark Ages very few scholars

could read them in their original language.

That changed in the 9th Century, with the

work of the Arabic polymath Al-Kindi.

Born around 800 in what is now the

Iraqi city of Kufa, Al-Kindi became the

leading scholar at the House of Wisdom, a

grand library created by the ruling caliphs

of Baghdad. He led a team of translators

working on ancient texts by the likes of

Hippocrates and Aristotle. Over the

decades, manuscripts on everything from

astronomy to medicine and logic were

brought back into circulation by being

rewrien in contemporary Arabic, and in a

newly available format: paper, imported

from China. A brilliant academic, Al-Kindi

also contributed his own insights in

fields as diverse as pharmacology and

code-breaking. He is regarded as one of

the greatest scientific polymaths of

all time. RM

GEEK_KID, VIA TWITTER

DOES EATING BLUE CHEESE CONTRIBUTE

TO ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE?

It’s an old adage that fish don’t feel pain. Their

brains are too small and simple – or so the story

goes. But evidence is stacking up to the contrary.

In 2003, researchers at the Roslin Institute near

Edinburgh discovered sensory nerves in bony fish

that allow them to detect pain in a similar way to

birds and mammals, linking their skin and other

areas of the body to the brain. The same team

went on to find that, when injected in the lips with

mild acid or bee stings, rainbow trout rocked their

heads and rubbed their lips against the aquarium

tank. Given painkillers, the trout behaved

normally again. Many other studies reveal aspects

of fish suering, including in cramped fish farms

where some salmon stop feeding and show signs

of depression, such as high levels of the stress

hormone cortisol. HS

KEITH ANDERSON, BRADFORD

DO FISH FEEL PAIN?

SIMON BARTLETT, VIA EMAIL

IS ‘SNAKEBITE’ JUST A MIX TURE OF

L AGER AND CIDER, OR A CHEMICAL

REACTION BETWEEN THE TWO?

There’s no chemical reaction, because the

main ingredients are the same: water,

alcohol and carbohydrates. So the drinks

just mix together. Despite the fact that

some bars refuse to sell snakebite, the

beverage is actually no more deadly than a

pint of beer or cider alone – both drinks

tend to have a similar alcohol content, so

mixing them just produces a drink of a

similar strength. The feeling of geing

drunk quicker is likely to be purely

psychological. ED

THE MAN WHO BROUGHT SCIENCE

OUT OF THE DARK AGES

Q&A

GETTY IMAGES X4, ALAMY X2 ILLUSTRATION: DAN BRIGHT

Discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, the

antibiotic properties of penicillin, derived

from a species ofPenicilliumfungus, are still

widely used today, though many bacteria

have become resistant to the drug over time.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria

are regularly exposed to doses of antibiotic

that are not quite strong enough to kill all the

bacteria. In these situations, the antibiotics

only kill othe weakest bacteria, which leaves

the slightly stronger ones to multiply and

spread their more resistant genes. Blue cheese

does contain cultures ofPenicilliummould.

You might therefore think that eating too

much blue cheese could have a similar eect

to antibiotic resistance, by overexposing the

bacteria in your body toPenicillium. However,

the strains ofPenicilliumthat are used in

cheesemaking are dierent to the ones in the

drug, and don’t have any significant antibiotic

properties to begin with. Besides, they are

destroyed by your stomach acid anyway.LV

ABU YSUF YA‘QB

IBN ’ISHQ AS-

SABBH AL-KIND

HIDDEN

FIGRES

For centuries following the collapse of the

Roman Empire in the 5th Century, texts by

key thinkers from Ancient Greece, India

and elsewhere became lost to the world.

The texts still existed physically, but

during the Dark Ages very few scholars

could read them in their original language.

That changed in the 9th Century, with the

work of the Arabic polymath Al-Kindi.

Born around 800 in what is now the

Iraqi city of Kufa, Al-Kindi became the

leading scholar at the House of Wisdom, a

grand library created by the ruling caliphs

of Baghdad. He led a team of translators

working on ancient texts by the likes of

Hippocrates and Aristotle. Over the

decades, manuscripts on everything from

astronomy to medicine and logic were

brought back into circulation by being

rewrien in contemporary Arabic, and in a

newly available format: paper, imported

from China. A brilliant academic, Al-Kindi

also contributed his own insights in

fields as diverse as pharmacology and

code-breaking. He is regarded as one of

the greatest scientific polymaths of

all time.RM

GEEK_KID, VIA TWITTER

DOES EATING BLUE CHEESE CONTRIBUTE

TO ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE?

It’s an old adage that fish don’t feel pain. Their

brains are too small and simple – or so the story

goes. But evidence is stacking up to the contrary.

In 2003, researchers at the Roslin Institute near

Edinburgh discovered sensory nerves in bony fish

that allow them to detect pain in a similar way to

birds and mammals, linking their skin and other

areas of the body to the brain. The same team

went on to find that, when injected in the lips with

mild acid or bee stings, rainbow trout rocked their

heads and rubbed their lips against the aquarium

tank. Given painkillers, the trout behaved

normally again. Many other studies reveal aspects

of fish suering, including in cramped fish farms

where some salmon stop feeding and show signs

of depression, such as high levels of the stress

hormone cortisol. HS

KEITH ANDERSON, BRADFORD

DO FISH FEEL PAIN?

SIMON BARTLETT, VIA EMAIL

IS ‘SNAKEBITE’ JUST A MIX TURE OF

L AGER AND CIDER, OR A CHEMICAL

REACTION BETWEEN THE TWO?

There’s no chemical reaction, because the

main ingredients are the same: water,

alcohol and carbohydrates. So the drinks

just mix together. Despite the fact that

some bars refuse to sell snakebite, the

beverage is actually no more deadly than a

pint of beer or cider alone – both drinks

tend to have a similar alcohol content, so

mixing them just produces a drink of a

similar strength. The feeling of geing

drunk quicker is likely to be purely

psychological.ED

THE MAN WHO BROUGHT SCIENCE

OUT OF THE DARK AGES