Body & Society· 2015Q1
Antibiotic Resistance and the Biology of History
- 369citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Mass antibiotic production since the 1940s has driven bacterial resistance by treating individual bodies as environments that affect bacterial evolution globally.
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Key points
- Mass antibiotic production since the 1940s created environments that select for bacterial resistance.
- Antibiotic use affects bacterial evolution globally, beyond individual bodies.
- Stored soil and clinical samples serve as a 'biology of history', physically registering human history in bacterial life.
- Understanding the materiality of history and the historicity of matter is crucial for current theories of life.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Beginning in the 1940s, mass production of antibiotics involved the industrial-scale growth of microorganisms to harvest their metabolic products. Unfortunately, the use of antibiotics selects for resistance at answering scale. The turn to the study of antibiotic resistance in microbiology and medicine is examined, focusing on the realization that individual therapies targeted at single pathogens in individual bodies are environmental events affecting bacterial evolution far beyond bodies. In turning to biological manifestations of antibiotic use, sciences fathom material outcomes of their own previous concepts. Archival work with stored soil and clinical samples produces a record described here as 'the biology of history': the physical registration of human history in bacterial life. This account thus foregrounds the importance of understanding both the materiality of history and the historicity of matter in theories and concepts of life today.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Body & Society, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Geography, Planning and Development
Geography, Planning and DevelopmentSocial Sciences