8 Super Simple Ways To Explain Complicated Science

4. Antibiotic Resistance = Old School Warfare

The Tricky Bit Antibiotic resistance is the resistance developed by microbes to treatment with medications or disinfectants. It can occur through random mutations in the microbes themselves, or the misuse of antibiotic medications. The former is essentially a result of natural selection as a microbe with a random genetic mutation that renders it immune to antibiotics will ultimately survive and reproduce, passing on the resistant mutation. The latter is a result of improper use of prescribed antibiotic medication. If a person fails to finish a course of antibiotics prescribed to them, then it will be the strongest, most resistant bacteria that survive and reproduce. Even if a person finishes their course of medication, there may be one or two super-resistant bacteria that survive. In isolated cases, this is not such an issue, but with antibiotics as overprescribed as they are, this happens repeatedly, then the effect is compounded until a dominant super-strain emerges. The Simpler Way Now, imagine that you're living in a town that is plagued with constant attacks from an army of duck-sized horses. With every new generation of duck-sized horses, they send down an army of 1000 troops made up of 500 foot soldiers, 400 cavalry and 100 elite soldiers. You know that if you can defeat the weaker foot soldiers and cavalry, then the elite soldiers, although stronger, will be outnumbered and retreat. To avoid losing too many men, you only send exactly enough out to do this. However, because only the strongest survive, after 10 raids the duck-sized horses can eventually build an army of 1000 elite soldiers that you are completely unable to defend yourselves against. Due to their skills and numbers, the village is overwhelmed and, trust me, death by duck-sized horse is a nasty way to go. I think we might've gotten a little sidetracked here...