| The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. |
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| antibiotics, resistance to |
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| The insensitivity to a particular antibiotic developed by the bacteria against which the antibiotic has been used repeatedly or over a long time. The process works by the ordinary rules of natural selection: that segment of the bacteria population that has a natural ability to counter the drug’s effect will survive, so that their genes eventually are shared by the entire population. | 1 |
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| | | The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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