Free Republic

HOLLAND - A recent expedition by Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates has led to the discovery of the final location of the Great Lakes passenger steamer S.S. Michigan, the remains of the car ferry Ann Arbor 5 and an unnamed barge. The S.S. Michigan is one of MSRA's six most-sought-after shipwrecks and is the subject of a 2004 documentary called, "ICEBOUND! The Ordeal of the S.S. Michigan." The S.S. Michigan sank on March 19, 1885, just four years after her launch. The 30-man crew made it safely to shore after being stranded on the ice for 42 days. MSRA board...

Lauren F Friedman and Reuters January 7, 2015Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic, teixobactin, that can kill serious infections in mice without encountering any detectable resistance, offering a potential new way to get ahead of dangerous evolving superbugs. The new antibiotic was discovered in a sample of soil. The research is "ingenious," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told The New York Times. Researchers said the antibiotic, which has yet to be tested in humans, could one day be used to treat drug-resistant infections caused by the superbug MSRA, as well as tuberculosis, which normally requires...

Potentially deadly staph bacteria may be easily defeated by the body's own immune system once stripped of their golden hue by a drug developed to lower cholesterol, according to new research.The findings offer a promising new direction in the fight against increasingly drug-resistant staph infections, according to the National Institutes of Health, which supported the research. An international team of researchers found that a "squalene synthase inhibitor," originally developed by Bristol Myers Squibb, blocks infections of Staphylococcus aureus, named for its "golden halo," in mice.Staph contains a carotenoid -- like beta carotene in carrots -- that acts like an antioxidant...

Ottawa, ON (AHN) - A medical journal has reported a case of a one-week-old infant who died from complications after being circumcised in an unidentified hospital in Ontario, Canada. In its April 2007 edition, Paediatrics and Child Health reported a case in which an infant, whose parents did not want him identified, was brought back to his family doctor by his parents 5 hours after he had been circumcised. At that time, his parents said he was "very irritable and had blue discoloration below the umbilicus when he cried." The baby's physicians sent the child home. The baby's parents took...

Essential Oils Can Be Used As a Natural Antibacterial   It is estimated that infections such as MRSA (staph infection) kill 5,000 people each year. This is partly due to the fact that current treatments are only successful in around 50 percent of cases; such treatments can also cause skin irritation. However, researchers may have discovered a much more efficient, not to mention pleasant, way to treat staph infections: Essential oils (compounds found within aromatic plants). It seems that the use of these oils, typically used in aromatherapy, have been found to kill deadly MRSA bacteria within just two...