Question

One problem with using pesticides to control insects on crops is that the insects can develop resistance to the chemicals. How is this similar to the overuse of antibiotics?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

Overuse of antibiotics leads to bacteria's resistance against our drugs. This is increasing at an alarming rate and the reason is that overuse of antibiotics kills bacteria that lack the "resistance" gene or gene that can help them survive the antibiotics (similar is the case for insects that die to insecticides). But, some bacteria can have random mutations in their gene that can help them survive the antibiotic (similar is the case for some insects that can survive the insecticide), thus the surviving bacteria give rise to next generation of bacteria that are resistant to the given antibiotic (similar to how insects that survive the insecticide give birth to new insects that are resistant to insecticide too). Soon, every generation adds new antibiotic resistant bacteria (or new insecticide resistant insects in the case of insects) which is dangerous for all of life on this planet. Therefore, both are similar in the sense that new generations of these organisms will be resistant to our weapons against them.