Scientists are now implementing large petri dishes coated with different levels of antibiotics to study the evolution and adaption of bacteria in real time. Microbiologist Micheal Baym tells how similar
experiments are conducted in flasks where everything is mixed together, but that such tests miss a crucial part of the evolutionary process in nature. "You don’t necessarily need to be more fit than everything around you. You just need to make it into a new environment.", says Baym. By the time the bacteria's descendants reached the center of the petri dish, the had become more than 100 time more resistant to antibiotics than the original bacteria. Baym and his colleagues plan on experimenting with other environmental factors in the future, such as temperature and nutritional levels.
This experiment reminded me of the fact that we are slowly breeding super bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics every time we take them to cure our illnesses, leaving us with no natural defenses against them. Like the native americans who were ravaged by smallpox as they had no natural immunities to the virus, we may end up with a highly resistant virus or bacteria strain that has the potential to cause a lot of harm. Modern medicine needs to look towards the long term effects of many of the new drugs and antibiotics being released, and judge carefully the impact they might have down the road.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/scientists-watch-bacteria-evolve-antibiotic-resistance
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