How GPUs Aid Fight Against Zombie-Like Bugs

When health officials use words like “nightmare” and “apocalypse” to describe a problem, it’s probably time to pay attention. We’re in a war with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and we’re losing. Antibiotics that saved millions of lives in the last century are increasingly powerless against a growing number of superbugs that have evolved to survive our pharmacological onslaught. There’s a dearth of new antibiotics to treat what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control calls “nightmare bacteria.” This has led some — including the U.K.’s chief medical advisor — to warn of a post-antibiotic “apocalypse” in which ordinary infections, surgery, tuberculosis and even a papercut could be a death sentence.