Free Republic

Ancient antimicrobial treatment could help to solve modern bacterial resistance. Like werewolves and vampires, bacteria have a weakness: silver. The precious metal has been used to fight infection for thousands of years — Hippocrates first described its antimicrobial properties in 400 bc — but how it works has been a mystery. Now, a team led by James Collins, a biomedical engineer at Boston University in Massachusetts, has described how silver can disrupt bacteria, and shown that the ancient treatment could help to deal with the thoroughly modern scourge of antibiotic resistance. The work is published today in Science Translational Medicine1....

<p>GREAT FALLS, Montana (AP) --Montana's Libertarian candidate for Senate has turned blue from drinking a silver solution that he believed would protect him from disease.</p> <p>Stan Jones,a 63-year-old business consultant and part-time college instructor, said he started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics.</p>

Paul Karason, who became famous after his skin turned permanently blue, died at a Washington hospital Monday. He was 62. Karason was admitted in the hospital last week after suffering a heart attack. He also had pneumonia and later suffered a severe stroke, his estranged wife, Jo Anna Karason, said Tuesday. Karason was born a fair-skinned, freckled boy but his skin began turning blue 15 years ago after he contracted a rare medical syndrome known as argyria or silver poisoning from dietary supplements. He was reportedly using a special silver-based preparation to treat a bad case of dermatitis. He had...