Staphylococcus aureus is a hard bug to kill. The bacterium is responsible for more U.S. deaths each year than HIV/AIDS, in part because it quickly develops resistance to antibiotics. Scientists have had a hard time figuring out how it ticks, but now researchers think they may have found a way to conquer S. aureus by blocking its ability to perform a critical task: recycling. Recycling is so important that even bacteria do it. They chop up the RNA blueprints needed to design proteins and reassemble them into new instructions.
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Nailing the Staph Bug
Staphylococcus aureus is a hard bug to kill, but now researchers think they may have found a way to conquer it by blocking its ability to perform a critical task: recycling.
Monthly Issue
April 2026
In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.
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