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In 1980, a scientist looking at bone fragments under an ultraviolet microscope noticed the bones were glowing green—a hallmark of the antibiotic1 tetracycline. The drug latches2 onto calcium3 and gets deposited in bone. Nothing unusual. Except these bones were from a Nubian mummy buried 1,600 years ago in Sudan—long before scientists discovered tetracycline, in 1948.
At the time, other scientists said the antibiotic probably just contaminated the bones after death. Because tetracycline’s secreted4 by a soil bacterium5, Streptomyces. To get to the bottom of this, a chemist recently took bone from the mummy of a Nubian child and dissolved it in hydrogen fluoride, a nasty acid that helps extract tetracycline. And this bone extract also matched the chemical signature of tetracycline—evidence that the antibiotic was built into the kid's bones as he grew. That analysis appears in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology6.
Anthropologists know the Nubians were skilled brewers. Researchers now believe that the ancient brewmasters learned to purposely make their beer medicinal, by lacing it with grain contaminated with antibiotic-producing Streptomyces bacteria. Just imagine that prescription7.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Christopher Intagliata.
1 antibiotic | |
adj.抗菌的;n.抗生素 | |
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2 latches | |
n.(门窗的)门闩( latch的名词复数 );碰锁v.理解( latch的第三人称单数 );纠缠;用碰锁锁上(门等);附着(在某物上) | |
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3 calcium | |
n.钙(化学符号Ca) | |
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4 secreted | |
v.(尤指动物或植物器官)分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 );隐匿,隐藏 | |
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5 bacterium | |
n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌 | |
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6 anthropology | |
n.人类学 | |
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7 prescription | |
n.处方,开药;指示,规定 | |
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