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Germicidal UV could make airborne diseases as rare as those carried by water

(www.worksinprogress.news)
118 points venkii | 1 comments | 22 Sep 25 21:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.245s | source
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ur-whale ◴[23 Sep 25 07:44 UTC] No.45343982[source]▶
Wont micro-organisms quickly adapt and start producing UV resistant strains?
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VMG ◴[23 Sep 25 08:10 UTC] No.45344190[source]▶
There is a giant orb in the sky that emits UV and has for billions of years.

I think the microbes are still trying to figure this one out.

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1. Qem ◴[23 Sep 25 08:51 UTC] No.45344472[source]▶
> I think the microbes are still trying to figure this one out.

They mostly figured it out a couple billion years ago. Cyanobacteria oxidized Earth's surface until the atmosphere was flooded with molecular oxigen, that gets turned to ozone in the stratosphere, filtering most UV. Pretty large engineering feat for a bunch of microbes.