College Essay: Antibiotic Resistance

During World War I, thousands died of bacterial infections resulting from injuries in and out of the battle field. It was expected, during this time, that if a wound became infected and amputation was not a choice, death would certainly follow. Finally, during World War II, penicillin was discovered and a defense against bacterial infection was available. Unfortunately, this miracle drug was not the panacea that doctors and scientists had hoped. “Just four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it” (Lewis, 1995, para. 1). Scientists attempted to counter this resistance by devising new remedies from penicillin only to find that some strains quickly adapted. Today, patients are being prescribed medicines that are overkill for the illnesses they face at the time. It is this natural decrease of original antidotes and overuse of drugs on microorganisms that is causing the increase of antibiotic resistance.
“Since the 1940s, when penicillin was developed into a drug, scientists have mined the natural world for new antibiotics. However, many scientists now suspect that this vein is running out” (Brownlee, 2005, para. 8). One common attribute, between bacteria and humans, is the desire to survive. The human race has prevailed over time because it has passed on what one generation has learned to the next. All microbes work in the same fashion, but in this sense their knowledge is called a plasmid. A plasmid is terrifying, natural form of resistance made up of a small circle of DNA. This disk of information is passed between different types of bacterium and updates strains with the new keys to survive. In an epidemic in Guatemala, a microbe carried a plasmid which held resistances to four antibiotics, causing the deaths of 12,500 people (Lewis, 1995). This simple, yet vital communication, has given bacteria the ability to survive man’s pharmaceutical assaults. It is for this reason that the vein of natural antidotes is quickly running out for the human race.
Antibiotics that were once successful at treating illnesses are now becoming insignificant. The problem of drug-resistance has largely been blamed on inappropriate prescribing and overuse of antibiotics. Obliviously, people who are facing life threatening illnesses are the ones who need to be treated with the proper antibiotics. According to Dragon (2006):
Research has revealed a high correlation between antibiotic use and drug resistance in European countries several years ago. Countries at the high end of antibiotic use included Spain, Italy and France and those at the low end of use were Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. Countries with high rates of resistance had high levels of antibiotic use, and those with low rates of resistance had low levels of antibiotic use.
The problem is individuals who are given medicines that are much stronger than needed and given twice as long. “People take antibiotics for five to 10 days, as opposed to an antidepressant or lipid-lowering drug that you take for life and they don't develop resistance” (Dragon, 2006, para. 18). If people researched more into the proper medicines for their ailment and pharmaceutical institutions focused more on designing a product that targets a disease more appropriately, then the resistance of microbes to antibiotics would slowly decrease.
It is understood that there is little that can be done to stop the natural evolution of bacterium. Like all organisms on this planet, they will continue to adapt to the forces in nature to ensure their survival. The issue at hand is humankind jumping into the process of this evolution and escalating it into a very destructive force. A natural decrease of original antidotes is one thing, but an overuse of drugs on microorganisms will create a potential death sentence for all.



References

Lewis, R. (1995). The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections. FDA Consumer magazine.

Retrieved November 27, 2006, from http://www.fda.gov

Brownlee, C. (2005, May 5). Us Against Them. Science News, 347-348.

Retrieved November 25, 2006, from EBSCOhost database.

Curbing Antibiotics. 1999, February 1. MacLean’s, p62. Retrieved November 25, 2006,

from EBSCOhost database.

Dragon, N. (2006, August). Fighting today’s superbugs. Australian Nursing Journal, 16-

19. Retrieved November 25, 2006, from EBSCOhost database.

Teaching Thanksgiving In a Different Perspective

Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them.
The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry, want their things back and begin rioting.
Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings.
He has replaced it with a more realistic look at the complex relationship between Indians and white settlers.

Morgan is able to trace his genealogy back to John Smith and Pocahontas, two of the most famous people in the 'New World' settling.

"I wanted to get these damn kids to understand what these so called 'Indians' went through during the time when the white man made his first appearance in North America. It seems like all people want to do is eat and forget about the real history that happened long ago" exclaimed Morgan while he did a line of cocaine off a paper Pilgrim hat.

Many have called this form of teaching extreme and have been pushing for a ban on Thanksgiving celebration. Mary Clarkson, member of PTA board in Nashville, Tennessee; is one of the outspoken members of the celebration feast that takes place on the 23rd of November in the United States.

"We don't need to be celebrating this devil hoiday, but rather drowing ourselves in sorrow and begging for forgiveness from our sins. When the white man first came, they ravaged our livestock, burned our villages and laid waste to our crops. We were devastated and had no hope of survival" proclaimed Clarkson behind the bars of Nashville's insane asylum.

Next year Bill Morgan is planning another interesting way to teach his young students about the evils of America's gluttony holiday. He has already reserved a 67 acre plot of land deep within the red wood forests of California where his third graders will spend 2 months straight.

"The goal here is to put these little bastards in the wilderness all by themselves for 60 days and see what they can learn from it. There will be no communication with the outer world and no help or supervision."

It was widely believed that this tacict has been tried before and has yielded the following:

College Essay: The Wrath of a Desk

I am the co-founder and co-owner of 3 technology companies that were started here in Colorado almost 2 years ago. During this time, our central office has moved several times to account for our company’s growth. With each move, for one reason or another, the inventory of random furniture and other odd paraphernalia has only increased. Being what many business owners still consider a small company, we do not yet have the financial luxury of hiring a moving company. This unfortunate speed bump has led to several sore backs, strained muscles and blistered hands. You can bet that if the opportunity ever arises for us to trash some unwanted chair, couch or shelving unit we will do so. Finally it had been decided that the old, cheap and decrepit desk that had sat in the front of the office would meet its doom. Saying that I was ecstatic about this choice would be an understatement. I loathed this desk and trust me, I made sure I would be the one to pass judgment on its’ poor soul.
This damn desk fought me the whole way. Moving it out of the office I must have smashed my hands a dozen times as it deliberately tried to catch every corner. In the parking lot, it attempted to escape on several occasions by sliding off the dolly that it rested on. Its’ efforts were futile though, and it met the back of my truck with a crashing force that nearly broke it in two. Because we did not have a dumpster that belonged to us or the building we were in, it would be necessary to can this thing illegally. The plan from here was to obliterate it with sledge hammers and put it to rest in some random dumpster. After careful consideration though, I decided the most efficient solution would be keeping it intact as much as possible. The next step was locating the dumping spot, which I found about 2 miles away in a neighborhood just undergoing construction.
Making sure that no one was around, I pulled up to the dumpster and began tossing in the few broken pieces of desk that had managed to fall off during the move. Keep in mind that I was doing this in a hurry as I did not wish to get caught trashing our desk in this construction company’s dumpster. I figured that the remaining amount of desk would be rather light so I attempted to pick it up. This maneuver didn’t work. Moving around to its’ other side I tried again. This failed too and I realized how cumbersome it still was. Looking around I knew that time was running out and if I did not get the job done soon and escape I would get caught. Finally, I moved around so I was standing in the back of my truck and found a tremendous grip on it. I gave it my all and lifted with everything I had. This was where I made my mistake. Whether the desk planned this or just got a lucky break I will never know. What happened next would have been the world’s funniest video if it had been caught on tape. Almost an instant after I had lifted the desk, the piece I was holding on to broke away and smashed full speed into my face. I could barely see and started to stumble about. The problem here was that I was already at the back of my truck bed, and to add insult to injury I tripped on the tail gate of my truck and fell backwards out of the bed. I must have been out for only a second or two and when I came to, I instantly climbed into the driver seat and took off.
On my retreat to the office, with the desk still in the back, I began to think about what had just happened. Noticing a very bad nose bleed and a growing headache, I decided that I had deserved my pain. No matter how badly I wanted to get mad at the desk, I just could not. It was at that moment when I realized how much I had grown up from being a high tempered youth. I always used to blame other people or other events for causing pain and discomfort in my life. It is such an easy thing to not accept responsibility for one’s actions. In this case I was completely in the wrong. I had tried to throw away junk in a dumpster that did not belong to me, full knowing that it was wrong. I have noticed how much better I have become at making good decisions and learning from my mistakes. I understand throwing away a desk in someone else’s property is a very bad choice, regardless of how much easier it is than paying to have it properly trashed. It is decisions like this that I rarely ever make now but I will still learn from it. What I took away from it, besides a broken nose and a mild concussion, was the agony I could have caused someone else. Had I tossed that entire desk, someone would have had to remove it; which would cost them time and money. This has led me to make decisions that will have a positive affect on all people, rather than ones that only affect me.