We hear a mickle , in science fiction , about things that now dish out us but will soon kill us . Like golem . But what about the reverse — affair that used to kill us in droves , but now assist us ?
Predatory beast , bug , and the component themselves — they all concord dominion over us . Once . Celebrate the triumph of humanity with our lean of 10 conquered enemies . Suck it , Nature !
Top range of a function : Lightning and lava from eruption of Iceland ’s Eyjafjallajokull vent , viaBoston.com/Reuters .
10 . Wolves
As anyone who watched The Grey have intercourse , Hugo Wolf will mess up you up . They will band together in pack and hunt you down , picking you and your ally off one by one . Or , at least , they ’ll slaughter your cattle . In the past , they were even more dreadful than they are now , with jumbo wolves prowling the Americas in Brobdingnagian , drool packs . It took humanness a long sentence to surmount them . We bulge out by take in their young , and falsify their minds and bodies . The floppy ears and endless penury for affection we see in today ’s dogs are expressions of neoteny — when an adult animal keeps the trait of its pre - adolescence . We bred that into them . Once we feel out about their incredible power to change human body , from dachshund to Great Danes , we went to town on that species .
Now what do firedog do ? They herd our cattle , and guard our sign , and yap at our annoying neighbor , and alarm us to diabetic attacks . Mostly , though , they swagger around for our entertainment . Dance for us , you once - gallant predators !
9 . Viruses
These once took down bombastic fractions of civilizations . They modify the course of story and brought mighty empires down . And sure , they still do plenty wrong . But many of the bad viruses are being wiped out . And we ’re wiping them out by turning them against themselves . They form for us .
What do many killer computer virus of yesteryear actually do now ? They give us their corpses , so that we might use them to make ourselves resistant to their exist relation . This has happened ever since vaccinia made citizenry resistive to the more baneful smallpox , and derail the bed cover of the disease . Sometimes , we do n’t even require to change them into vaccinum to heal ourselves . People mainly worried about H1N1 because it affected young , healthy people . The previous people had get a strain much like it when they were young and had built up an immunity . Every limp computer virus stiff we interject into ourselves bring us closer to crushing a virus uprising later in life . Welcome to our world , short guys . We will use your dead body to plague the lives of your nestling .
8 . Sewage
Oh , this was a cagy adversary . It got in our water and solid food , infecting us with every awful thing it could possibly hold . Plus , it tasted bad . This cunning enemy even worked out a organisation in which we produced it ourselves , so no matter where we snuff it , there it was . But we got our own back , finally . Now , some sewage makes plants grow . Some sewage is a harvesting ground for important constituent . Some sewerage lets us track former human movements . Some sewerage might let us re - create extinct animals , since it can contain some of their DNA . We ’re even grow technology that permit us convert sewage into energy . Take that , excreta !
7 . Bees
There ’s no elbow room to know how far back in chronicle human ascendant ate the honey produced by bee ’s ancestors . What is certain that there was a time that the dearest was fought for , with casualties ( or at least terrible painfulness ) on both side . Bees were the acrid enemies of humans , and would kill people trying to get at their hive . They still from time to time kill people — when they ’re not busy make stuff to sweeten our oatmeal and pour over our flannel-cake . Bees now devote their entire lives to making our breakfasts more pleasant . Even their venom has become something we apply . Bee maliciousness now helps people with arthritis boil down pain . When bee venom is n’t have in mind to reduce ignition , it ’s meant to induce it . There was a whole seam of bee venom lip salve , meant to puff up lips . Between that , dear , and providing the design specs for adorable Halloween costume for toddlers , bees serve us entirely . Truly , all that bees are is now ours to do with as we wish well .
6 . Ice and Fire
Probably the best manner to put the progress of our use of ice and fire into position ? Otzi the Ice Man . He was find in the Swiss Alps after dying there over five thousand year ago . Many hoi polloi think he froze to dying . Killed by ice . He was found by a couple of hikers who liked looking at the ice . He was bestow down and examined by scientist who used ice to keep him coolheaded . The documentary , made about this process , was watched by people who were probably using methamphetamine to chill their sodas . Our kinship to ice has change , is what I ’m read .
And Otzi , and his contemporaries , would have belike gloated in a similarly snotty mode about fire . Fire used to kill Otzi ’s enceinte - great - reach out - great grandparent . They themselves used it to warm themselves and ready their food . We ’ve get a long style , baby . Twice .
5 . volcano
Once terrifying spectacle that raze intact metropolis . Now a nice informant of geothermal vigor for Iceland . ( Occasionally they cause hold in European air change of location , but it ’s still a far cry from the fuss we used to have with them . )
4 . Radioactive fabric
Perhaps a better way to entitle this entry is ‘ 4 . Radioactive Materials ? ’ This is an unsealed segment for two reasons . The first is the fact that we do n’t actually know that we wo n’t kill ourselves off with these sometime in the future . The second is the radioactive particle themselves were n’t doing us too much scathe until we sequester them and begin putting them in our skin ointment and on our watches and in our wellness tonics in the twenties and thirties . Still , radioactive speck are being used to power nuclear nuclear reactor and stimulate our cities , and in atomic medicine , to give us clear pic of our insides , so I ’d say we ’ve bring them under control . For now .
3 . electrical energy
jolly much all this ever did , once upon a clock time , was to come down out of the sky and let the great unwashed know their gods were mad enough at them to fry them animated . once in a while , it would start fires that also fried multitude . The important thing is , it was never effective to mass . Then came the scientists and the machine . Now electrical energy reinforces our fence , provides our amusement , light our theater , permit us babble to people on other sides of the ball , and lets us play Solitaire without the hassle of actual cards . If there were a advanced story of Prometheus , electricity would be the fire that we slip from the Heavens that utterly changed our lives . Hey , whatever chance to that Prometheus guy , by the room ?
2 . Cyanide
This poison first killed those feeding on chokecherries , spoiled gelt , and bitter almonds . Once homo view on , the material fun started . Cyanide murdered its manner through the century . Nero was said to have used it to kill his family . Napoleon told his soldiers to douse their bayonet in cyanide . And it made a memorable appearance in plenty of James Bond movies .
What does cyanide do now ? It helps us dig for gold ! Sodium nitril is put into a solutions with rock proven to incorporate amber . The amber gloms on to the cyanide , and when the cyanide separates out from the root , the Au come with it . What used to make us decease now make us rich .
1 . Botulism
A friend of mine wants to get Botox , not to correct any defect in her face , but to simply showcase human achievement . Clostridium botulinum has plagued our footprint since the beginning , luring us close with food for thought and then kill us off horribly . It pop us off when we hunted animals , it ooze into exposed wounds , and it murdered us in drove when we started can . It does n’t need air to live , so it can be anywhere . It ’s been sitting there , mill about in the melodic line , the urine , and grime , waiting to kill us by paralyzing our breathing and muscles movement .
And now where is it ? That ’s right . It ’s in our freaking nerve ! shit us look pretty ! We are now so lacking in fear of one of our most pervasive and hard - to - conquer foes that we deliberately put it in our body to make ourselves look nicer for a few weeks at a sentence . The only matter it can kill now is well - known moving picture stars ’ acting power ! Feel shame , botulism . And recognise that one day , we ’ll be using deadly meteors as nail files . Nothing can stop us now !
Virus Image : Public Health Image Library
Bee Image : Jon Sullivan
Second Volcano icon : Wiki Commons
Lightning picture : Wiki Commons
Botox Image : Flickr
ViaUCI , Medscape , DRCordas , Medicienet , Scientific American , Ice Man .
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