A 'Doctor Who' Dalek may help exterminate drug-resistant diseases. Really

As you may have heard, the world is running out of effective antibiotics. That's because bacteria are evolving resistances faster than we can develop ways to destroy them.

You also may have also heard there's this popular science fiction show called "Doctor Who" that's run for decades on the BBC.

Normally, these two facts would be unrelated. But not today, as we first learned from Gizmodo.

A Dalek - an evil robotic space alien from the show - stands inside BBC headquarters. And as part of a University College London program called "Swab and Send," BBC Inside Science radio host Adam Rutherford sent several samples from the BBC building to test for antibacterial substances.

Most were duds, but the swab from the eye-stalk of the Dalek yielded four potential antibiotics.

The swabs, when cultured, grew colonies of bacteria that killed Micrococcus, a bacterium the researchers test to see if others might be susceptible. That means the eye-stalk swabs might contain the potential to produce new, effecting antibacterial medicines.

As Rutherford points out in the BBC interview, this probably means people haven't been obeying the don't touch the Dalek sign. But if it ends up helping save lives, we think they can forgive the rule-breakers.

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