Thomas Kalinoski's reading response to chapters 1&2 of The Antibiotic Paradox

I found the first two chapters of the antibiotic paradox pretty interesting. It was actually easy to read and the two chapters went by fast. The beginning story was a great intro. In chapter 2 it went through a lot a history of the discovery and trials of different antibiotics. It was interesting to read that they had trouble with antibiotic resistance even back then. I though that this was a more recent trend because we are hearing a lot more about it now with MRSA and other highly resistant strains.

Its scary to think that there actually are bacteria out there that antibiotics can't touch. With modern health care, its easy to think that if you happen to get sick, hospitals will have the technology to take care of it. But with antibiotics becoming less and less effective, this won't always be the case.

There was a lot that I didn't know about antibiotics and their history. I assumed that antibiotic use was more widespread before WWII. It was interesting to read about the history of penicillin, and that it was available over the counter for a while sold to treat ailments that don't even involve bacteria. It was inevitable that resistant strains would come about. I thought that the visuals were interesting, but not needed. I could understand the text fine without them. It was cool to see the penicillin plate though and being able to see what Fleming saw in his lab when he discovered it.

The writer explains the concepts pretty well. I try to imagine someone reading who does not have a background in biology since most of concepts were just review for me, and I think that it would have taken someone a bit longer to go through and understand whats going on. I guess that someone with a non-science background would have found the visuals helpful.