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US scientists have discovered a new family of antibiotics in soil samples.

The natural compounds could be used to combat hard-to-treat infections, the team at Rockefeller University hopes.

Tests show the compounds, called malacidins, annihilate several bacterial diseases that have become resistant to most existing antibiotics, including the superbug MRSA.

Experts say the work, published in Nature Microbiology, offers fresh hope in the antibiotics arms race.

Drug-resistant diseases are one of the biggest threats to global health.

They kill around 700,000 people a year, and new treatments are urgently needed.

Drugs from dirt

Soil is teeming with millions of different micro-organisms that produce lots of potentially therapeutic compounds, including new antibiotics.

Dr Sean Brady's team at New York's Rockefeller University has been busy unearthing them.

They used a gene sequencing technique to analyse more than 1,000 soil samples taken from across the US.

When they discovered malacidins in many of the samples, they had a hunch it was an important find.

They tested the compound on rats that they had given MRSA and it eliminated the infection in skin wounds.

The researchers are now working to improve the drug's effectiveness in the hope that it can be developed into a real treatment for people.

Dr Brady said: "It is impossible to say when, or even if, an early stage antibiotic discovery like the malacidins will proceed to the clinic.

"It is a long, arduous road from the initial discovery of an antibiotic to a clinically used entity."

Prof Colin Garner, from Antibiotic Research UK, said finding new antibiotics to treat gram-positive infections like MRSA was good news, but would not address the most pressing need.

"Our concern are the so called gram-negative bacteria which are difficult to treat and where resistance is on the increase," he said.

"Gram-negative bacteria cause pneumonia, blood and urinary tract infections as skin infections. We need new antibiotics to treat this class."</s>The brand-spanking new MotoAmerica Junior Cup class will make its debut this season in the 2018 MotoAmerica Series and it will do so with a new title sponsor and name – the 2018 MotoAmerica Liqui Moly Junior Cup class.



 The Liqui Moly Junior Cup class replaces the spec-class KTM RC Cup that ran in the first three seasons of MotoAmerica, with the class now open to all manufacturers meeting homologation requirements. The class, which is the first rung on the ladder to the Superbike class for up-and-coming young riders (aged 14 to 25), will make its debut in the Suzuki Championship at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, April 13-15.

“This engagement will be the next level for Liqui Moly to engage even further with the racing community in the U.S.,” said Sebastian Zelger, the director of Liqui Moly USA. “We are also very excited to be able to support the younger racers during their formative years.”

Liqui Moly produces oils, additives and other fluids exclusively in Germany, where it has been voted best brand of oil year over year. Liqui Moly is also one of the few suppliers that offers a full range of chemicals especially for motorcycles. On the international level, the brand is known for its involvement in MotoGP, as all the teams in Moto2 and Moto3 use Liqui Moly oil.

The 2018 Liqui Moly Junior Cup class is expected to attract a large field of riders at each of the nine rounds on a variety of motorcycles from Honda, Kawasaki, KTM and Yamaha.

“We’re really excited about the new Junior Cup and Liqui Moly’s involvement in the class,” said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey. “It’s going to be fun to watch the different brands doing battle and will be interesting to see who steps up on the racetrack. The class is important to us because our future champions, and hopefully future World Champions, are racing in it. It promises to be entertaining and it’s always fun to see the young riders progress as the season goes on.”</s>If you do your shopping on Ocado and have a penchant for avocados, you’re probably fairly posh, right? In the worst-case scenario, you’re at least moderately middle-class, surely? Once upon a time, that was almost certainly true, but I’m afraid I’m here to burst your Boden-lined bubble and tell you that everything you know about class is outdated and irrelevant. Facebook is coding a whole new class system and, well, you’re going to have to adjust your self-worth and position on the social ladder accordingly.

It has recently been reported that Facebook has patented technology that uses artificial intelligence to determine its users’ social class without relying on anything as vulgar as their income. That Facebook is analysing its users’ data in nefarious ways is hardly news; it’s the company’s business model. However, this latest development is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.

First, it suggests that Facebook may add class as a targeting option in its advertising preferences. The patent application, Socioceonomic Group Classification based on User Features, says the technology is intended to be used by “third parties to increase awareness about products or services to online system users”. If you’re, say, an upscale supermarket placing ads on the social network, you might be able to specifically exclude working-class people from seeing those ads. Meanwhile, if you’re a predatory payday-loan company, you might be able to ensure only working-class people see your ads. This is crass, of course, but it’s not actually very remarkable. It is simply a more direct form of the sort of targeted advertising that already exists.

What is remarkable about Facebook’s patent application, however, is how it goes about classifying class. It is an approach that may say more about the social dynamics in Silicon Valley than it does about the rest of the world. According to the illustrations in the patent application, Facebook prioritises different class indicators according to your age. If you’re 20 to 30 years old, then the number of internet-connected devices you own is the predominant signifier of your social status; if you’re 30-40, whether you own a house is most important. I’m not entirely sure what happens when you’re over 40; presumably you cease to be of any relevance whatsoever.

Facebook’s focus on how many gadgets you own as a proxy for your place in the world isn’t exactly a nuanced approach to class dynamics. Nevertheless, it does reflect the fact that access to the internet and technological literacy have become important new class markers.

Facebook isn’t the first institution to attempt to rewrite the rules of social class. In 2013, working off the thesis that the traditional three-tiered class divisions of upper, middle and working class were out of date in the 21st century, the BBC teamed up with academics to create a contemporary class calculator. This new model classified people according to one of seven groups based on income and assets, social acquaintances and cultural activities. At the bottom of this new class pyramid was the “precariat”; at the very top was the “elite”. But you probably know this already: within a week of the calculator going live, about one in five Brits had clicked on it. While the definitions of class in a digital world may be shifting, Britain’s national obsession with it doesn’t seem to have changed at all.

The five-million-dollar question of the Oxford comma

For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of an Oxford comma five million dollars were lost. Last week, a US dairy company settled a dispute about overtime pay with its truck drivers for $5m (£3.6m), a payout that could have been avoided by more punctilious punctuation. The case hinged on whether a group of drivers qualified for overtime pay under a clause in Maine state law that was ambiguous due to the lack of a serial comma.

The case has made headlines all over the US thanks to a weird obsession Americans seem to have with the Oxford comma. Plenty of Brits have strong views on grammar, of course, but the Americans seem to have a special affinity with this particular punctuation mark. It is common to see people express their adoration for the Oxford comma on dating profiles, for example; your stance on the matter marks you out as an intellectually superior choice of mate. And the punctuation mark hasn’t just infiltrated Tinder; it has embedded itself in popular culture. The American rock band Vampire Weekend had a hit song called Oxford Comma in 2008 that sparked an internet meme about the punctuation mark – a phenomenon I’m not sure the editors of the Oxford University Press style guide could ever have predicted. In 2011, (inaccurate) rumours that Oxford University was killing its eponymous comma almost unleashed riots.

While I’m glad that the Oxford comma debate led to the truck drivers getting their overtime pay, I can’t help thinking that our obsession with the punctuation mark has lasted far too long. It’s time for the Oxford comma to fade out of popularity, so the much-maligned exclamation mark can have its time in the sun!

If Roald Dahl went to the Winter Olympics …

Anyone heard from the luge world recently? It has been a tumultuous time for them, apparently. According to an NBC announcer, some sort of ice-based error that took place during the Winter Olympics on Sunday “left the luge world speechless”. Evocative phrases such as this are the main reason I’m watching the Games. Ice skating is full of “swizzles”; skiing has “wongbangers”; curling has “kiggle-caggles”; snowboarding has McTwists. I still haven’t figured out what the luge actually is or why curling is a thing, but I’m definitely enthusiastic about the lingo.</s>A new study suggests that chemicals found in food packaging could be causing people to gain weight.

The study, published in the journal “PLOS Medicine,” said the chemicals called PFA’s can be ingested and absorbed into the blood stream.

Those are found in everything from packaging to textiles.

The chemicals cannot be metabolized or broken down in the body.

Researchers at Harvard found women with the highest PFA levels regained more weight after dieting.</s>Walking to class in the cold, bitter weather can be pretty brutal sometimes. If you have no one to

 walk with, the perfect solution is to listen to some good music to get you to class. Here’s a list of

 15 songs to motivate you to get out of bed and walk to class.</s>Past versions of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class have generally been solid cars, but they haven’t always felt particularly special. With the 2015 redesign of the C-Class, however, that all changed.

Not only does it now look like a smaller S-Class, the interior almost looks like it could be out of the S-Class.

To keep it from feeling dated, though, Mercedes gave the 2019 C-Class an update that adds power, new standard features, and even more technology.

Exterior changes have been kept subtle and focus on refining the car’s appearance more than changing it. The new front and rear bumpers are well-integrated and help give the car even more of an S-Class feel.

Mercedes also made LED headlights and taillights standard, designed new 17-inch wheels for the base model, added two paint colors, and redesigned the key. Inside, the C-Class gets a new steering wheel, but beyond that, the cabin looks pretty much the same.

But while the visual updates are minimal, the C-Class didn’t necessarily need any major design changes. Instead, Mercedes chose to add standard features and offer more technology options.

So when you buy a new C-Class, push-button start, a power-retractable sunroof, wood trim, a 7.0-inch infotainment system, and automatic braking are all included.

The base engine also now makes an extra 14 hp, bringing the total up to 255 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque.

Customers looking for a little more luxury can add a 10.25-inch infotainment system, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a panoramic sunroof, heated and cooled front seats, a heated steering wheel, a heads-up display, NFC wireless charging, and a Burmester sound system.

Most importantly, though, the E-Class‘ semiautonomous driver assistance package is also an option.

Under the right conditions, the new C-Class will be able to follow the car in front of it at a safe distance, maintain its lane, adjust its speed based on the speed limit, and change lanes with a tap of the turn signal.

The system isn’t as advanced as Cadillac’s SuperCruise or Tesla’s Autopilot, nor is it remotely close to being fully autonomous, but it’s still impressive.

Pricing isn’t available at the moment, but Mercedes says it will officially reveal the refreshed C-Class at this year’s Geneva Motor Show before it goes on sale toward the end of 2018.</s>A new study has observed detrimental changes in the mammary glands of female mice following exposure to chemicals used in unconventional oil and natural gas (UOG) extraction methods, which include fracking.

This could translate into important health implications for millions of people living in proximity to extraction sites and exposed to these chemicals through the water supply.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process by which several million litres of water mixed with a cocktail of chemicals is injected under high pressure into fossil fuel beds in order to increase output. Waste water from these operations can be heavily laced with radioactive compounds, heavy metals and the input chemicals, and is regarded by many as a potential major health risk.

The study in the journal Endocrinology was led by Laura Vandenberg, an environmental health researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.

She worked with gynaecologist Susan Nagel from the University of Missouri, who has previously researched the substances used in, and produced by, UOG methods and established that several were endocrine-disrupters capable of stunting development and suppressing reproductive hormones in mice.

Nagel and colleagues also found elevated levels of the same chemicals in ground and surface water sampled from major drilling sites in Colorado. They tested these on human cell cultures and demonstrated similar disturbances in reproductive hormone levels and their receptors.

The current study went one step further and looked at the effects of 23 chemicals used in the UOG process – including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkenes, and volatile organics. The chemicals were administered in combination to pregnant mice in one of four doses. Other mice were exposed to an inert substance, to serve as controls.

The two lower doses were akin to concentrations measured in drinking water obtained from drilling regions, whereas the higher doses were comparable to concentrations found in industrial effluents. All, thus, represented environmentally significant levels for humans.

Mammary glands of the female offspring were studied at 21 days after birth, equating to pre-puberty, and at 85 days, equating to early adulthood.

No overt adverse effects were observed in the pre-pubescent pups. However, at 85 days, Vandenberg and colleagues detected mammary structures called terminal end buds, normally present only at puberty. Examining the buds at tissue level, they found abnormal multiple layers of epithelial cells, and excessive growth of the cells lining the ducts, indicative of pre-cancerous lesions.

The severity of the abnormal tissue correlated with the level of exposure to the chemicals the mice had received while still in the womb.

The authors are currently engaged in designing new studies to learn more about the long-term impacts that the 23-chemical concoction may have on mammary tumour development, progression and general gland function.

Vandenberg and her team are hopeful that their findings will prompt further studies into the health effects of UOG chemicals.</s>Malacidin appears to work differently than daptomycin, which was introduced in 2003 and has yet to be challenged by resistant bacteria. But scientists have reason to believe it will hold up at least as well. Even after 20 days of continued contact with malacidin — more than enough time for most bacteria to find a way to thwart an antibiotic’s effects — samples of MRSA bacteria showed no signs of evolving resistance to the newly discovered agent.
Scientists announce the discovery of malacidins, a new class of antibacterial chemicals.