http://avxhome.se/blogs/crazy-slim

Seaweed is amazing for all sor ts of reasons.
It’s a healthy food, can be used as a fer tiliser
and is home to thousands of species of anim
and plants in the ocean.
But one par ticular species of red seaweed
is also showing us how Nature deals with
potential infections.
Delisea pulchra is a seaweed that makes
chemicals called furanones that stop bacteria
reproducing, not by killing them, but by inter
with their communication! Using too many of
kinds of antibiotics we use at the moment (the
kinds that kill of f bacteria) is causing bacteria
to evolve to be resistant to drugs, and is mak
some diseases hard, if not impossible, to trea
Scientists are now tr ying to make antibiotics t
mimic these furanones, which would let us tre
infections safely and sustainably.

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Termites are found in deser ts in places like

Australia, and are famous for their ability to create

large mounds, or dens, rising high above the

surrounding land. The termites build these mounds

in a way that allows air to circulate through them,

which lets them maintain a constant, comfor table

temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius, even

when the temperatures outside can be as high as

40 or as low as one degree!

TERMITE BUILDINGS

SEAWEED ANTIBIOTICS

This ability to maintain a constant temperature

is called thermoregulation.

In Zimbabwe, an of fice building and shopping

centre, the Eastgate Centre, has been designed

using termite mounds as inspiration. Temperatures

inside the building stay constantly comfor table and

the building uses only 10 percent of the energy

needed by other, more conventional buildings of

its kind!

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GOING GREEN!G