It's a mechanical method of action rather that chemical (think targeted receptors/activation sites). An oversimplication would be to liken it to barbed wire.
As for you next question, they call out the need to investigate making it selective for bacteria vs human cells. So it seems it has no selectivity at present and will kill other things. And, as I understand it, changing it from being 100% effective to being selective will introduce evolutionary pressure for resistence bateria strains.
So this might be neat for materials and creating a sterile environment rather than chasing in vivo applications.
> An oversimplication would be to liken it to barbed wire.
A more apt explanation would be to liken it to diatomaceous earth vs. pesticides. Insects can develop resistance to poisons, but when they cross diatomaceous earth it pierces their waxy exoskeleton coating and causes them to lose moisture, dry out, and eventually die... and evolution hasn't found a way around that yet.
Bleaching something is an active measure. How well you clean depends on how long you let the bleach work, how thorough you are at getting full/consistent coverage, how frequently you sterilize the surface, etc.
This can be a passive way to achieve sterilization, much like silver nano particles and brass surfaces have been shown to passively kill bacteria, except without metal working/precious metals/oxide layers that make those solutions less scalable.
As for you next question, they call out the need to investigate making it selective for bacteria vs human cells. So it seems it has no selectivity at present and will kill other things. And, as I understand it, changing it from being 100% effective to being selective will introduce evolutionary pressure for resistence bateria strains.
So this might be neat for materials and creating a sterile environment rather than chasing in vivo applications.
Edit: autocorrect wronged a word