Conversations with a Microbiologist
Microbiology certainly isn’t my field. I did like chemistry in high school, and I do like science in general. I also enjoy philosophy, especially with a few friends. What if questions are some of my favorites. Tonite I was talking with an accomplished scholar of microbiology about vaccinations, antibiotics, disease & prevention.
I was in a bit of a philosophical mood tonite. It was a night of science philosophy and thought experiments. I thought of a new term, macrobiology. I would bet that this has been thought of before, but it is a new thought for me. The concept is like macroeconomics is to microeconomics.
It started with some kind of simple question whose answer led to another question. An hour or so went by and these were some of the mysteries I was wondering about:
What is the biology of an entire population? What do we find if we look at the patterns in the antibodies and bacteria found in individuals in a community and compare them?
How do these bacteria spread between individuals?
Is it possible for bacteria cohabiting an organism to interact and mutate into something new?
Instead of asking how antibiotics will affect the inner ecosystem of an individual, ask how antibiotics administered over 10, 15, or 20 years could affect our biology. Could this bread new diseases? What happens if a large percentage of a population becomes treated with antibiotics in terms of the kinds and frequency of bacteria. Could an untreated minority be subjected to super germs breed through natural selection in the individuals who were treated with antibiotics?
Could living longer create the conditions for new diseases or bacteria to develop, mutate, or evolve?
I got some answers to these questions, but some still linger in my mind. I really wonder how these organisms interact between individuals, and how the condition of a person’s immune system can affect their community members. Is it possible that while antibiotics are good for the individual in the immediate moment they could produce undesirable effects in the long term? Could a person heavily treated with antibiotics serve as a treat to society? Hmmm. I definitely have a lot to learn about this subject.