Talk:Antibacterial Surfaces

This seems like a really detailed page, well-researched with great organization. One thing that seems like it would be a large area of interest is bacterial infection on the surface of implanted devices, which you mention briefly towards the end; this could be expanded upon, to show how researchers attempt to limit infections in surgical implants, perhaps in preparation of these surfaces as well. You might also go into more detail regarding the consequences of each type of antibacterial surfaces to human cells, if such data is available.

I was very interested by the information you had in this page about making surfaces antibacterial. This seems like an excellent idea that I would imagine will soon become prominent in our daily lives. I was wondering if there was any more information on the types of bacteria that these methods are and are not able to kill. For example, when Nano-SiO¬2 is able to kill 70% of bacteria after being washed 20 times, what kinds of bacteria does it lose it's effectiveness against first? In addition, why do the anti-bacterial properties break down and is there a way to build them back up? Overall a detailed and enjoyable read.

Sarah C's Comments

This page caught my eye because of its relevance to our daily lives. It seems that we often talk about microbes in a distant sense, as in thermophiles or barophiles that live in extreme conditions that we will never witness. I had never previously heard of covalent modification as a means of killing bacteria without antiseptic. I thought it was especially interesting that the fibers could be reset simply with the use of detergent! I had also never heard of nano-silver particles that prevent DNA synthesis in Bacteria. These methods seem like very interesting means of ridding our surfaces of infectious microbes. Nevertheless, it might be nice to see more of a conclusion that ties these methods together and possibly compares them. It also might be interesting to learn about their effectiveness as compared to modern antiseptic techniques.