Why can bacteria adapt to antibiotics, but not adapt to environmental things like heat or acids/soaps (Salmonella as an example)?

Question

Edit: I’ve had a lot of fun reading all of your analogies

In: 64

Answer 1

You can change the locks on your house, and it’ll keep your ex out, but it won’t stop a freight train from plowing through the front door.

Bacteria need to let things in to do chemistry, and control what those things do inside of the cell. Things that specifically target bacteria must somehow exploit this process to get inside and do damage – this is why they don’t also kill humans or plants. They ‘have the right key’.

Heat, powerful acids, powerful oxidizers, and other ‘blunt’ attacks will just as soon kill you as they will bacteria, because they don’t exploit anything. They just smash through whatever’s in their way. These are the ‘freight train’ attacks.