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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: 0s | 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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unsupp0rted ◴[23 Sep 25 14:17 UTC] No.45347369[source]▶
I always think of it as the equivalent of inner city youth evolving to be bulletproof
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542354234235 ◴[23 Sep 25 16:15 UTC] No.45349077[source]▶
This is such a good analogy. There are some things that bacteria can evolve to deal with, like training yourself to build up an immunity to iocane powder. There are some things they cant, like training yourself to be bulletproof.
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1. LorenPechtel ◴[23 Sep 25 21:24 UTC] No.45352949{3}[source]▶
Train yourself, no. Evolve it? Yes. But you'll need an awful lot of generations. Put a robot gun where everything has to come to drink--but it's an air rifle, calibrated to the point of maybe causing injury. Every year you raise the pressure by a tiny bit.

The reason you can't evolve bulletproofness is that it's an overwhelming force. You get evolution when you subject your target to something that only gives a partial kill.