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Penicillin Lab Report

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Introduction

A topic we have covered in class that interested me most was on the power of antibiotics, as well as, how bacteria’s resistance to drugs, specifically antibiotics, can evolve quickly. According to what I have learned in class, antibiotics are used to kill bacteria by inhibiting cell-wall biosynthesis, inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis, and inhibiting bacterial DNA replication. This also brought us to the discussion of the first antibiotic to be manufactured against illness-induced bacteria during World War II which was Penicillin. The discovery of the antibiotic Penicillin was by the British Bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. This led me to my essential question for this particular research paper which is to figure …show more content…

They are considered to be the simplest, efficient single-celled organisms known. Just one bacterium’s cell-envelope consist of a plasma membrane and in most cases even a cell wall. These are needed to maintain conditions on the inside that are different from the conditions on the outside of the bacterium. Inside the cell-envelope is cytoplasm as well as proteins that carry out essential functions, such as digesting molecules for food. The cytoplasm also contains genetic information in two structures chromosomes and plasmids. This is literally everything needed for bacteria to function properly.
Commonly, bacteria reproduce by binary fission. The Tenth Edition of Campbell Biology (2014) states that the term binary fission, meaning ‘division in half’, is a process in which the cell grows approximately twice its size and then divides to form two new daughter cells (Cain et al. 240). This type of reproduction happens fairly quickly, so within a reasonable amount of hours one cell can form a whole new colony filled with thousands of cells. Due to rapid reproduction, bacteria have a fairly high degree of …show more content…

On the subject of this problem, Ed Warren writes:
“It would be tempting to blame the pesky bacteria for developing resistance. However, they are just following their own Darwinian destiny by trying to survive. There are several other factors to consider, all to which contribute to the problem: addressing just one and ignoring the rest is unlikely to bring about the desired result” (2016).
Using antibiotics rationally and logically is key and supported by most UK medical authorities. Like Levy president of APUDA, Warren is a firm believer that the over-prescription of antibiotics leads to them just floating around in the environment giving them easy access to passing bacterium; this leads to AMR or antimicrobial resistance. “Rational use can also be supported on the grounds of economy and minimizing possible adverse reactions to the drugs (Warren

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