Antibiotics and Bacterial Evolution

After reading the article “Antibiotic Resistance of Bacteria: An Example of Evolution in Action?” By Dr. Georgia Purdom, I have a new view on bacterial mutations caused by to antibiotic medications. In her article, Dr. Purdom claims that bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, but that they aren’t evolving. Although I agree with most of what she illustrates, I am skeptical of her claim.
I learned many things about bacteria and antibiotics from Dr. Purdom’s article. One of the many things that I learned is that more than 70% of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics used to treat them. Bacteria are constantly changing so that they can survive in their constantly changing environment. The most important thing this article taught me is that there is very much to be learned about bacteria.
Antibiotics are capable of changing the bacteria’s DNA, in a process that we call mutation, which is why some bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. Mutation and natural selection often result in bacteria with defective proteins that have lost their normal functions. Dr. Purdom claims that bacteria aren’t evolving, because resistance to antibiotics isn’t anything new and evolution requires a gain of functional systems. Although most mutations result in the bacteria losing functions, I believe that occasionally a mutation can occur that makes the bacteria stronger and better. I think that some strands of bacteria are currently evolving because of the mutations that antibiotics subjected them to.
There is not enough evidence to prove that bacteria are or are not evolving. Dr. Purdom has some good support in her article for her claim that bacteria aren’t evolving. She states “Bacteria that are resistant to modern antibiotics have even been found in the frozen bodies of people who died long before those antibiotics were discovered or synthesized”. This supports the idea that just because bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, doesn’t mean that the bacteria is gaining a new function and therefore evolving. This is good support, but it isn’t enough to prove that bacteria are not evolving.
After reading Dr. Purdom’s article, I am still too skeptical believe her claim that bacteria aren’t evolving. I believe that mutations of bacteria can give the bacteria functions, other than resistance to antibiotics, that we are not yet aware of yet.

Summary of Ghost in Your Genes

Genes are not the only things that are passed on from generation to generation.
Although genes take much time and several generations to change, the epigenome can change throughout a person’s life, and the changes can be passed on from generation to generation.
It’s proven that the grandchildren of men who experienced a famine during late childhood live longer.
Identical twins with the exactly same genes can be very different.
Genes can be turned on and off. Epigenetic changes are tiny chemical tags that accumulate over time and can turn genes on or off.
We have different kinds of cells because different genes are turned on to make them different.
Identical twins with the exactly same genes can be very different.
Cancer and some other diseases were thought to be caused by changes in the genome, but they can be caused by changes of the epigenome and/or changes of the genome.
Cancer tends to appear in people that smoke, that have certain environmental exposures or that are exposed to radiation. These things can damage your epigenome and your genome.
Cancer is more abundant with older age groups because epigenetic changes accumulate with age.

My T’ai Chi experience

Before this term I wasn’t sure what to expect of this class, I didn’t have much of an understanding of what T’ai Chi is, and I wasn’t even sure if I would attend this class more than once. On the first day of class, when I came to try it out, I learned about what T’ai Chi is and what it could do to improve me physically and mentally. I have always had an interest in the martial arts and yoga. With T’ai Chi being a sort of combination of the two, I found it quite appealing. I was excited to find that this class would improve my balance, would strengthen my self-defense skills and help relive stress.
I found several improvements that T’ai Chi had on me, physically and mentally. I had fractured my foot in several places last May. I was concerned that it would be a problem during my practicing of T’ai Chi. My foot pain did hinder my movement several days during T’ai Chi, but I eventually found that wearing shoes with good insoles made it okay. When I had first started walking again after my injury, my recovering foot had very poor balance. After a few weeks of T’ai Chi I noticed that my balance was dramatically improving in both of my feet. Another thing that T’ai Chi has been helping me do, is relax and distress. I have found that T’ai Chi class was at the perfect time, immediately after my two hardest classes. After class I walked away feeling so much more calm and relaxed, even if it was a terribly stressful day. T’ai Chi has also helped me become more flexible, and make a few more friends.
I very much enjoyed this class. I found that practicing this art was very enjoyable, even though when I practiced at home my roommate often laughed at me. I look forward to putting some of my new self-defense skills to use when wrestling with my two big brothers. Thank you for introducing me to the art of T’ai Chi Chaun.