Antibiotic resistance

Cells in bacterial colonies work together to stay alive and fend off their enemies, making them super-resistant to antibiotics. But by understanding these partnerships, we might be able to turn friendly bacteria against each other so that the odds may not be in their favor.

Penicillin overkill has created life-threatening bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. But now some new research shows that common herbicides used in farming can also breed resistant bacteria, and no one’s sure how that may affect humans.

Scientists are pleased with preliminary tests for a new cure for MRSA, the deadly antibiotic-resistant infection. But it’s not a fancy new technology: The new remedy was found in an Anglo-Saxon medical book that’s more than 1000 years old.

McDonald’s in the US will be limiting the use of anitbiotics in chickens. Is this a good thing? Let’s back up a bit. Why do farmers even use antibiotics and what’s so bad about eating a chicken with antibiotics in it?

Antibiotics, among the most extraordinary drugs of the last hundred years, mostly come from a very ordinary source: dirt. But that source has been slowly exhausted, since 99 percent of the microbes in dirt can’t be cultured in a lab. Now, a group of scientists has developed a new technique for cultivating bacteria on their home turf, so to speak: right in the dirt, where they grow best. The results are a game-changer.