Based in Brazil, Fernanda Ferreira is a science writer who covers a range of STEM (and occasionally non-STEM) topics, from textile conservation to vaccine stockpiles.
A 1000-year-old Anglo-Saxon recipe for eye stys in Bald’s Leechbook directs the reader to take the ingredients and “pound them well together” before letting them stew for nine days. A group from Nottingham University followed Bald’s recipe and their close attention to the medieval text paid off when they saw that the garlicky slime produced by their efforts killed 90% of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) on scraps of infected mouse skin – a similar percentage as Vancomycin, the go-to antibiotic for MRSA.
