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

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Answer 1

My best explanation is that with antibiotics, one bacterial population is being consistently challenged by the same antimicrobial for 1-2 weeks on average. With disinfectants, you are theoretically always cleaning a different bacterial population. Think in a hospital, you’re cleaning up after each patient one time then it’s onto the next patient.

The repeated, constant exposure of a given bacterial population to a given antimicrobial is what breeds resistance over time because this population has the time to withstand multiple generations during the course of treatment. This is why it’s so important to finish a course of antibiotics.