Word: superbugs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
ENVIRONMENT A voracious Superbug is chewing up California's crops...
...agent of disaster is a 3-mm (one-tenth-in.) insect known to scientists as the poinsettia strain of the sweet-potato whitefly but to farmers as the Superbug. Millions of these voracious insects have spread over the Imperial Valley, massing on the undersides of leaves and sucking plants dry, weakening or killing them in the process. Farmers first noticed the flies getting worse in July, and by September swarms of them looked like white clouds. They covered windshields and got stuck between people's teeth. Farm workers had trouble inhaling and eventually had to wear masks. Not since...
...first hint of a visit by fruit flies is invariably met with quarantines . and airborne-insecticide spraying campaigns. The new Superbug has no effective native predators in California, and pesticides are largely useless against it. If it continues unchecked, Imperial Valley could be put out of business for months. That could cause an estimated $200 million in farm losses by spring and higher prices at the produce counter. The wholesale price of melon has tripled, and by one reckoning, the average cost of a head of lettuce in a supermarket could go from $1.19 to about $1.50. In some areas...
Florida is a little too cool and rainy, on average, for the Superbug's taste, and the infestation there was never as serious. But when the fly arrived in Southern California, probably in a fruit basket or vegetable shipment, it felt right at home in the dry weather and summer temperatures that can reach 46 degreesC (115 degreesF). Because the insect is happy eating some 500 varieties of plants (one of the only vegetables it doesn't seem to like is asparagus), it found the fertile Imperial Valley to be a veritable smorgasbord...
...Ananda Chakrabarty, 41, an Indian-born microbiologist. Like most of his colleagues, Chakrabarty knew that at least four strains of the common pseudomonas bacteria contained enzymes that enabled them to break down different hydrocarbons-the major ingredients of oil. He combined these strains into what he describes as a "superbug" that can eat oil faster than any one of the four can individually...