How Ravenous Soviet Viruses Will Save the World: Wired.com

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The discussion centers on the challenges of combating bacterial infections and the potential of bacteriophages as a solution. Sulakvelidze emphasizes that humans cannot completely eradicate bacteria, as they will always adapt and return stronger. Instead, he advocates for utilizing bacteriophages, which have evolved to target and destroy bacteria effectively, allowing nature to handle what traditional pharmaceuticals struggle with. This method offers a diverse and adaptable approach to fighting infections, as phages evolve alongside bacteria. However, concerns are raised about the unpredictability of phages, particularly their ability to adapt to new food sources, which could lead to unintended consequences, such as harming beneficial bacteria in the human body. The conversation also touches on the need for "systematically holistic thinking" to address these complex issues, prompting further inquiry into what this concept entails in the context of science and philosophy.
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"The war against bacteria is not something that can be won by humans," Sulakvelidze says. "If you try to wipe them out, they will always return. Only they will be stronger."

If the problem is classic Darwinian adaptation, the solution might lie in the very same process. Thus, Sulakvelidze, Morris, and others have turned their attention to bacteriophages, which have evolved over eons to destroy bacteria. This approach to fighting infection let's nature do the lab work usually carried out at tremendous expense, and with high failure rates, by the pharmaceutical industry. In contrast to engineered drugs, phages are as numerous and varied as the bacteria they attack. What's more, they evolve along with their prey, matching bacterial adaptation step by step.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/phages.html
 
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I got to admit, this idea scares me a little. One of the ways in which bacteria are known to adapt is the area of alternative food sources, especially under pressure of starvation. If a bacteriaphage is placed in a body where bacteria are plentifull, it may flourish and become quite numerous. Then, when the bacteria that served as its original foodsource is exhausted, some individualls of this vast population may develope the ability to eat the helpfull bacteria in the digestive tract. They might even start living off the proteins that hold our cell-walls together! Thing is, the very feature that makes bacteriophages desirable, their ability to evolve, also makes them dangerously unpredictable.
 
This problem shows nicely how systematically holistic thinking is necessary for coming to grips with the fundamental questions.

But then the question is: what does "systematically holistic thinking" really mean and imply?

(I am trying to get at this on a thread in the sector Philosophy of Science and Mathematics)
 

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