Silver bullets supposedly kill werewolves, should you ever meet one. But the battle’s a little more complicated when it comes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Scientists are focused on harnessing silver’s antibacterial properties at the microscopic scale in the ever-more-urgent battle against infection. UCLA scientists in a recent study discovered a new way to create silver nanoparticles that make them far more effective as antibiotics. That’s compared with commercially available silver-based antibiotics. Antibiotics containing silver are used on the skin to prevent or treat infection. Humans have known for centuries that silver has qualities that protect health, long before we knew about germs. The ancient Romans, of course, knew nothing of bacteria. Yet they somehow realized that thin silver pieces in a wound could prevent infection. Silver kills bacteria by damaging their cell walls and disrupting vital enzymes. In the UCLA study, researchers used a harmless virus, M13, to infect bacterial cells. They mixed the purified virus with a silver salt solution. The silver formed into nanoparticles directly on the virus’s surface. The virus’s proteins served as a scaffold, shaping and holding the silver in place. The study found that the new mixture could kill bacteria at concentrations up to 60 times lower than those of other available products. The bacteria also developed resistance more slowly. Any new tool to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria is welcomed by scientists as dangerous infections increase year after year. They warn, however, that much more research is needed. This is no silver bullet against infection — yet.