This paper is directed at the general public, and more specifically toward the nonscientific population. I feel that it is the type of paper that could be distributed in pharmacies and doctors offices in the form of a pamphlet. The scientific information is intended to be understandable for individuals that are not of a scientific background. The goal was to provide and interesting medium to relay a basic understanding of the problems of bacterial antibiotic resistance, and what everyone can do to help.
             The Role of Antibiotic Misuse in Bacterial Resistance, and Why I Should Care
             It was 1969 when then Surgeon General William H. Stewart declared that it was "time to close the book on infectious disease." The American medical community had witnessed the near eradication of smallpox, polio, and rheumatic fever, and the future offered the prospect of once deadly infectious diseases being rendered harmless. Unfortunately, the use of the very antibiotics that were intended protect us, in combination with the bacteria's high rate of mutation, may paint a much different picture for the future. As William McNeill, historian and author of Plagues and Peoples, put it:
             "It is worth keeping in mind that the more we win, the more we drive infections to the margins of human experience, the more we clear a path for possible catastrophic infection....We are caught in the food chain, whether we like it or not..."
             Bacteria have been operating under Darwinian pressures for decades now. Those organisms that have been able to survive through mutations and utilization of natural bacterial processes are growing in prevalence. Modern bacteria are in many cases on the verge of outpacing the biomedical advances that are attempting to treat them. This problem, amplified by the over prescription and misuse of antibiotics, has catastrophic implications for the future.
             Less than one hundred years ago, bacterial i...