The Evolution of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

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16 pointsbetolink4 comments

Disease is going to be a major problem in the 21st century in general. Antibiotic resistance, diseases that "jump" from wildlife to humans, and even, perhaps, bioweapons, all seem to be major threats. Those interested in reading more might check out:

* Laurie Garrett's The Coming Plague http://amzn.to/2c9Vsoh

* David Quammen's Spillover http://amzn.to/2cm4ONj

Garrett's book is particularly good. I've not read a better summary of the political, economic, and social power disease will have over the next century.

While I appreciate the cautionary anticipatory ethos, I wonder if we can actually predict the future.

This is a concern too vague to address, watch me predict the future "In a decade there will be farmers in the open air on the moon", watch me predict the future with conditionals "It is so likely that in a month's time, the average amount of sunlight in Europe will have declined relative to now that the chances of it not happening are almost indistinguishable from 0."

Recent discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12470703

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