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The Evolution of Bacteria on a “Mega-Plate” Petri Dish (Kishony Lab)

Harvard Medical School · 3M views · 2016-09-09 · 1:55

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Overview

A two-minute time-lapse from the Kishony Lab showing bacteria spreading across a giant petri dish with increasing antibiotic doses, evolving resistance as they go.

On Hacker News

HN links it as a visually striking demonstration of evolution and antibiotic resistance happening in days.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2016–2026

Topics

Evolution & geneticsBiology & biotechnologyMedicine & infectious disease
Search by tags
antibiotic resistanceevolutionbacteriatime-lapsenatural selection

What people said

robocat · 2019-07 · Strong recommendation

> Why do you think the strongest of the strong bacteria are found in hospitals? I presume you mean strong against antibiotics and sterilisation. The evolved bacteria are likely weaker along other dimensions (that are less important for survival in a hospital setting). Some evolution is compromises, improving X has cost Y. Aside: the mega-plate video is an unbelievably good demonstration of bacterial evolution: [VIDEO] especially note the tree at the end showing how many different mutations evolved.

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lossolo · 2016-09 · Strong recommendation

This is an amazing video[1] from Harvard Medical School released couple of days ago showing evolution of bacteria that evolve in 10 days to become resistant to antibiotics. [1] [VIDEO]

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idiocrat · 2023-01 · Recommendation

Strengthens your immune system. Without exposure (playing in mud, touching other people), we are only weaker. Bio life is really complicated. Sterilization works well only to a certain degree, before becoming damaging, e.g. causing resistance. Somewhat related, here is an interesting visualization of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Harvard Medical School, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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