Skip to main content

What causes antibiotic resistance? - Kevin Wu

3,824,419 Views

28,874 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

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.

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

Next Section »

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

More from Getting Under Our Skin