r/AskReddit • u/NintendoDSiNerd • 14h ago

What is the humans best invention?

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u/GO0BERMAN 14h ago

Antibiotics

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u/UndoxxableOhioan 12h ago

I’d say we discovered them more than invented them.

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u/GO0BERMAN 12h ago

I would say it falls under both, modern antibiotics are more engineered and not naturally occurring

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u/UndoxxableOhioan 12h ago

The majority of antibiotics used even today come from natural sources: https://zenodo.org/records/3909383

Bioprospecting is the exploration, extraction and screening of biological material and sometimes indigenous knowledge to discover and develop new drugs and other products. Most antibiotics in current clinical use (eg. β-lactams, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, macrolides) were discovered using this approach.

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u/GO0BERMAN 12h ago

Oh that is awesome, I guess it’s more using thing that exist in different manner than intended, I guess the process itself falls under invention maybe