Frog skins, a handful of recent scientific studies show, are lush sources of antibacterial peptides, including some with the ability to battle such microbial hard cases as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), bane of hospitals and nursing homes. In other words, it just might be that the paddling Russian frog was the next best thing to pasteurization.

Provided, that is, that you think pasteurization is a good thing.

Milk—the prime accompaniment of cookies; the star of countless milk-mustached “Got milk?” ads—has been a bone of contention for centuries. There’s a good evolutionary argument that we’re not supposed to drink it at all. Milk is intended for babies. Worldwide, some 75 percent of adults can’t stomach it; most of us, as we graduate from