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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.

Antibiotics on a Plate

This Catalyst article describes how bacterial colonies produce antibiotics and explains how their growth depends on the medium they grow on. Over sixty years ago, a Russian soil scientist called Selman Waksman discovered that soil bacteria belonging to the Streptomyces genus produce some very useful compounds. He isolated a species that produced streptomycin, which became the world’s first anti-tuberculosis antibiotic. This article describes how this work continues today.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1.

Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased from Mindsets.

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