Like a mosquito on a summer evening, a bacteriophage is either
feasting or in search of its next meal. But a bacteriophage
isn’t interested in human blood and isn’t flying around your
backyard. Bacteriophages — aka phages — are microscopic killers
of bacteria. Wherever you find bacteria, which is nearly
everywhere, you’ll find phages. A phage is a virus, and the
feasting begins when, like any virus, it attaches to its
bacterium host and injects its DNA. The phage DNA hijacks the
bacterium’s machinery and begins to reproduce itself. Soon, the
bacterium is teeming with new phages that burst forth from the
bacterium, destroying it. The hunt for a new victim begins. Not
long after Canadian scientist Felix d’Herelle gave a name to
viruses that infect bacteria in 1917, he recognized their
potential to treat disease. Using sewage, he isolated the
dysentery phage and put it in solution. After he and other
doctors in a Paris hospital drank a few pints to test it, they
administered their phage solution to children dyin