How Do Bacteria Evolve So Quickly?

Imagine you have a group of tiny creatures who can copy themselves really fast. If one of them gets a little extra magic (like a new power), they pass that on to all their friends when they copy themselves. That's how bacteria change so quickly, it's like having a super-fast team of copycats.

Take the quiz →

Examples

A single bacterium with a new power can grow into millions of powerful friends in just hours.
Like copying a recipe that has a little typo, if the typo makes it better, all the copies get the better recipe.
If you have a group of bacteria and one of them becomes invisible to medicine, the whole group will quickly become invisible too.

Ask a question

Discussion

Recent activity

Categories: Biology · evolution,bacteria,genetics