University of Hertfordshire - Wipe out

New techniques for the use of antibiotics could aid the fight against "hibernating" hospital superbugs. Ole Steuernagel, from the University of Hertfordshire's Science and Technology Research Institute, explained: "One of the difficulties of applying antibiotic strategies against bugs is that some of the microbes tend to go into hibernation." In a paper in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Transactions on Evolutionary Computing, Dr Steuernagel and his colleague Dr Daniel Polani describe how to apply antibiotics to wipe out bacteria that form inactive as well as active subpopulations.