Powerful interests -- Microsoft, credit card concerns, banks -- are betting billions that zapping around e-cash will be as commonplace as sticking a card in an ATM.
Even if the idea of a little diarrhea or a urinary tract infection does not faze you (both of which can be caused by E. coli), the problem is that as strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more commonplace in our lives, the less we are able to use the drugs to treat common human diseases.