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What causes antibiotic resistance? - Kevin Wu

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  • 25,900 Questions Answered
  • TEDEd Animation

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Right now, you are inhabited by trillions of microorganisms. Many of these bacteria are harmless (or even helpful!), but there are a few strains of ‘super bacteria’ that are pretty nasty -- and they’re growing resistant to our antibiotics. Why is this happening? Kevin Wu details the evolution of this problem that presents a big challenge for the future of medicine.


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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Kevin Wu
  • Animator Brett Underhill
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Narrator Pen-Pen Chen
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Antimicrobial resistance statistics from WHO: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/e...

Antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus Aureus: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15445...

How bacteria obtain antibiotic resistance: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/li...

SciShow video on super bugs and recent antibiotic research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-apdGwBPz4

Kevin Wu's science education YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmP3Q6kJy1Za80KOain53jw
1 Guided Discussion
1 Open Discussion
TED-Ed
Lesson Creator
New York, NY
Bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics thus making more and more antibiotic...
Where do you think these drugs or methods will go? Do you think that we will mainly rely on the development of new antibiotics that target different mechanisms or on the development of novel methods to fight off resistant bacteria?
07/07/2014 • 
 39 Responses
 / 39 Updates
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Customize this lesson

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Kevin Wu
  • Animator Brett Underhill
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Narrator Pen-Pen Chen

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