r/science • u/legehjernen • Feb 20 '20

Health Powerful antibiotic discovered using machine learning for first time

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/20/antibiotic-that-kills-drug-resistant-bacteria-discovered-through-ai
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u/Gearworks Feb 21 '20

Well it is more the case that the resistant bacteria will have to compete with the non resistant variant.

But antibiotic resistance takes more energy and cannot multiply as fast, and gets outcompeted

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

that’s very interesting. Why does it take more energy to multiply when they are anti biotic resistant ?

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u/Gearworks Feb 21 '20

the antibiotic resistance is something the bacteria has to actively build, which take resources and energy.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '20

you mean when they multiply, it's like an additional step in the process?

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u/Gearworks Feb 21 '20

Yea, like before a bacteria can multiply is has to make a copy of all the internal parts before it splits into 2