7 Ways Scientists Plan To Avert The Apocalypse

6. Antibiotic Resistance

It might seem like one of those boring headlines buried in the middle of a broadsheet newspaper, but the antibiotic apocalypse is very real, very gruesome and very deadly.

If it happens then we basically knock ourselves back to the Dark Ages, where an infected cut or bad chesty cough could mean curtains for you. Some experts predict that, by 2050, up to 10 million people could be dying per year from currently treatable diseases. Think epidemics, quarantines, hazmat suits - the works.

A bit of background: Antibiotic resistance comes about when people take antibiotics too often and/or incorrectly. Broadly speaking what happens is that, by so regularly killing off the weaker strains of the bacteria, we are artificially selecting the stronger ones to survive and multiply, eventually creating super strains that can't be controlled using current drugs.

Part of the problem is in the fact that, in the past 30 years, only one new antibiotic has been developed, so pumping money into that kind of research is an obvious choice. There's also the statistic that 70% of antibiotics are prescribed to animals, to compensate for the fact that we tend to keep them in grimy hellholes before shooting and eating them.

So, unless you want to live in a dystopian future of virulent infection and explosive diarrhea, stop trying to treat your flu with penicillin.