this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
212 points (92.7% liked)

Technology

59438 readers
4336 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

McDonald’s installs phone cleaning devices.

The systems operate on the basis of ultraviolet technology.

These systems, powered by ultraviolet technology, destroy up to 99.9% of germs within 30 seconds while customers wash their hands.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

that sounds plausible, how is it different with UV?

[–] herrvogel@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Drugs kill germs by messing with their biological systems. They target specific processes, like preventing enzyme from properly bonding so that it fails to do something important in the reproductive cycle or whatever. If a new generation of bacteria evolve such that that specific process works differently, it could kill the effectiveness of the drug. And that's what happens when something becomes resistant to a certain drug. Suddenly the aforementioned enzyme and the reproductive cycle are ever so slightly different, and as a result the drug can't do what it used to do, at least not as effectively.

But UV just straight up breaks up the bonds between molecules. There's nothing biological about it, its destruciveness is entirely physical. The photons get in there and start destroying molecules, living or not. It's not easy or likely at all for a strain of bacteria to randomly evolve resistance against physical destruction at a molecular level. They're generally too small to have a protective layer to shield them against that, like our skin does.