Or rather, what’s a definition of antibiotics that excludes all non-antibiotics while including all antibiotics?
Some sources say that anything that kills bacteria or stops bacteria from growing is an antibiotic. By that logic, though, bleach is an antibiotic, and I don’t think that’s right.
Based on my research, one definition I would throw out there is “substance that kills bacteria while doing minimal damage to the host”— but bacteriophages do that, and they’re definitely not antibiotics.
I know there’s generally a fungal connection, but I don’t think that can serve as demarcation— modern penicillin is synthetic, and others are fully synthetic, I believe.
So how would you define antibiotics?
In: Biology
I mean, why couldn’t a bacteriophage be considered an antibiotic?
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