The New York Times, July 12, 2010

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Dr. Alexander Khoruts had run out of options.

In 2008, Dr. Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota, took on a patient suffering from a vicious gut infection of Clostridium difficile. She was crippled by constant diarrhea, which had left her in a wheelchair wearing diapers. Dr. Khoruts treated her with an assortment of antibiotics, but nothing could stop the bacteria. His patient was wasting away, losing 60 pounds over the course of eight months. “She was just dwindling down the drain, and she probably would have died,” Dr. Khoruts said.

Continue reading “How Microbes Defend and Define Us”

Between scrambling to finish some big projects and avoiding summer brain-fry, I haven’t been doing much science blogging recently. And now I’ll be taking a few days away from blogging altogether. It’s not a blackout at the Loom, though; just a brown-out. I’m going to schedule some old posts I’m fond of, as well as a backlog of science tattoos. Later this month I’ll be rested, refreshed, and ready to blog anew.

[Image: Weegee/Amber Online]

Originally published July 9, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.