From “Cave bacteria resistant to antibiotics” (The Scotsman, 12 April 2012), we learn,
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria cut off from the outside world for more than four million years have been found in a deep cave.
The discovery is surprising because drug resistance is widely believed to be the result of too much treatment.
Explicitly, it is widely supposed to be the result of Darwinism: The fittest bacteria (the resistant ones) survive and pass on their genes.
“Our study shows that antibiotic resistance is hard-wired into bacteria. It could be billions of years old, but we have only been trying to understand it for the last 70 years,” said Dr Gerry Wright, from McMaster University in Canada, who has analysed the microbes.
“Hard-wired”? Oh, you mean design, right? Well, maybe not, but we all know what it isn’t now.
Somewhere in Tennessee, a teacher is breathing a sigh of relief that it’s okay to mention this stuff now.