Resistance Far from Futile: Bacteria’s Amazing Adaptability
Bacterial resistance is far from futile. It happens with amazing speed.
For bacterial hosts–like us–on the other hand, Â resistance might be futile, here beyond the end of the age of the “overworked miracle” that once described antibiotics.
Serving suggestion: watch the jaw-dropping video time lapse of bacterial macroevolution whereby a high rate of reproduction, a high degree of genetic mutation and a strong selection pressure show bacteria over 11 days adapting to survive antibiotic levels 1000 times higher than an effective dose for first-time encounters by naive bacteria.
Then read:
Newest superbug found in a Connecticut toddler – The Washington Post
Houston, we have a problem.
Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.
And we thought antibiotics would cure everything! We’ve learned a lot since those early days of optimism!
That stop action video was astounding! Unbelievable if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes and seen it was from Harvard.