A Cure for TB?

This article was about the development of a new antibiotic, myxopyronin, which may be a cure for TB and other deadly drug-resistant strains of disease. Though it has only been synthesized in labs and has not been tested on humans yet, this has the potential to be a miracle drug for millions of people. I think that the development of new antibiotics is crucial, since over time diseases can become resistant to even the most potent antibiotics. Several deadly strains of staph and tuberculosis have become resistant to drugs that once were able to treat patients. If scientists can develop powerful new antibiotics, millions of lives could be saved. I think doctors are contributing to this phenomena of drug resistance by over-prescribing antibiotics. Antibiotics should be used sparingly, in the case of a patient developing a deadly disease later in life and needing strong antibiotics to be cured. The development of myxopyronin is coming at an important time, in a world of increasingly over-prescribing of antibiotics and the increasing resistance of disease to many once powerful drugs. 

This article's headline grabbed my attention. I wanted to read about a potential cure for TB. I think the lead was striking too. The words "on the verge of" made me want to read about how close these scientists actually were to developing these antibiotics. Overall, I think this was a well-written story with good human interest. 

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1851375,00.html

House of Sun and Water

This story was in the Houston Chronicle, about an eco-friendly house in Austin, Texas. The couple, Laurel Trevino and Carlos Torres-Verdín, recently built Austin's first LEED Platinum house, the greenest rating a home can receive from the U.S. Green Building Council. I enjoyed reading the story because it interested me, however, the most descriptive part of the story was the picture. The reporter described how the house functioned, but there was no real human interest aspect to the story. I would have like to read about why the couple built the house and what other people thought about it. Also, the first quote comes too late in the story; I would have liked to see a human come in earlier than the fourth paragraph. I would have also like to have read about what the house looked like and not just how it works.

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/green/6060052.html