A: The widespread overuse of antibiotics has contributed to the rise of bacteria that resist such medical treatment. At least two million people in the U.S. alone get infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year.
Antibiotic resistance is often held up as the "poster-child" proving evolution in action. But resistant survivors are not new, more complex kinds of organisms. They are only resistant varieties of the same kinds of bacteria. As we've said many times before, antibiotic resistance is
natural selection in action, not
evolution in action. The battle against resistant bacteria is surely a battle against a nightmare at times, but not against an evolutionary one. Finding precise molecular targets at which various molecules attack pathogenic bacteria does not unveil evolution in action but just the ordinary, and unfortunately in this case very efficient, process of natural selection.
Read the whole article by Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell to consider new research into how anti-microbial molecules work in the effort to provide good medical care for those in need. Today's question was also a
News to Know item. In case you missed it, this week we also featured the following
News to Know items:
Are Biological Gears Evolutionary Training Wheels for Leafhoppers? A recent report highlights the first functioning mechanical gears to be discovered in a living organism. These juvenile leafhoppers synchronize their back legs with gears.
Alien Life Found in the Stratosphere? Samples from the stratosphere are said to suggest Perseid meteor shower was reminiscent of a "panspermic" origin of life on earth.
In this issue . . . 
This Week . . . 
Ken Ham's Foundations Curriculum Set
A Biblical and Historical Look At Halloween
Jonathan Park: Return to Hidden Cave
Answers in Genesis 
Answers in Genesis
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