[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;51023538]makes me want to play with bacteria[/QUOTE]
I got myself a good microscope for $75. Its not a binocular one but it has a mechanical stage which is what you really want, and an oil immersion lens.
Basically now I need to get some stains so I can do basic histology experiments, but my big goal is to get some nematode cultures and examine their nervous system morphology. C. elegans has a nervous system of only a few hundred neurons so it shouldnt be too hard to see them after the right stain is applied.
get yourself a microscope and some h&e stain or something
It's kinda scary how after 11 days the bacteria developed enough mutations to survive such concentrations of antibiotics.
Makes me think, what if some persistant bastard started to develop superbacteria just by repeating this process of exposition to common antibiotics, and then release them? Would it be that easy to fuck up humanity?
I mean, I know that medics tell you to take antibiotics only when it's neccesary, with the right doses at the right time in order to keep the concentration high enough so that it kills the harmful agents, or else they might develop a resistance to that antibiotic and lessen its efficiency.
:snip:
I'm no microbiologist, but once a strain develops a resistance to antibiotics, should the amount of antibiotics not matter unless it's a different cocktail, or am I missing something?
[QUOTE=nerdster409;51023968]I'm no microbiologist, but once a strain develops a resistance to antibiotics, should the amount of antibiotics not matter unless it's a different cocktail, or am I missing something?[/QUOTE]
This is correct. A different antibiotic, or combination of, must be used.
[QUOTE=Matthew0505;51027120]Even scarier when you realise this experiment is being inadvertently performed thousands of times in dense animal farms.[/QUOTE]
Also in humans lol "oh you have a cold here have some antibiots"
[QUOTE=nerdster409;51023968]I'm no microbiologist, but once a strain develops a resistance to antibiotics, should the amount of antibiotics not matter unless it's a different cocktail, or am I missing something?[/QUOTE]
Depends a lot on the mechanism of the antibiotic and resistance. For example (if I remeber correctly), resistance against penicillin-type antibiotics is due to an enzyme that breaks down the antibiotic. Depending on how such an enzyme arises, it might only be able to destroy the antibiotic at a certain rate due to the enzyme's kinetic and/or the amount that is present. Therefore, one could theoretically swamp that enzyme with enough antibiotic and kill the bacteria.
Vancomycin - another antibiotic - works by wrapping around a certain part of the building blocks of the bacterial cell wall. If the bacteria changes the structure of the building blocks slightly, then it'll be resistant to the antibiotic.
Other antibiotics that make very selectively target a specific area of a certain protein could become useless very quickly if the bacteria changes a single amino acid in the protein - basically changing one base pair in it's DNA sequence.
Both vancomycin and the unspecified antibiotic might still bind to their targets after resistance develops but the interaction will be weaker, meaning much higher concentrations are needed to kill the bacteria.
This is actually pretty scary when you realize that we casually stuff antibiotics everywhere. Theres a very real chance that at some point todays antibiotics will simply no longer work
[QUOTE=Kyle902;51028605]This is actually pretty scary when you realize that we casually stuff antibiotics everywhere. Theres a very real chance that at some point todays antibiotics will simply no longer work[/QUOTE]
That's already happened.
There's at least one antibiotic that's strictly controlled, so it will only be used to kill bacteria that has already grown immune to everything else - but I can't remember the name of it.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are some antibiotics which governments have discovered, but keep under wraps, just in case common bacteria really do become resistant to everything we currently use.
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;51030004]I wouldn't be surprised if there are some antibiotics which governments have discovered, but keep under wraps, just in case common bacteria really do become resistant to everything we currently use.[/QUOTE]
There are antibiotics that were deemed a bit too toxic to people and then got shelved away that are now looking pretty good.
[QUOTE=Kyle902;51028605]This is actually pretty scary when you realize that we casually stuff antibiotics everywhere. Theres a very real chance that at some point todays antibiotics will simply no longer work[/QUOTE]
Of course there's a problem of us running out of effective antibiotics, but people should keep in mind that making new antibiotics hasn't really made all that much economic sense for a while. If there's already something cheap that works, it makes no sense to try to compete with that with a whole new product with the attached R&D and trial costs. My guess is there's a lack of motivation right now - when we start hurting for antibiotics, I'm pretty sure some philanthropic pharmaceutical company will step up and finish a product they've had lying around to sell it to us for a higher price.
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