This investigation was completed as a partial requirement for the Honors Biology course of Franklin High School in Franklin, Pennsylvania during the 2003-2004 school year. The investigation was conducted to prove the following hypothesis: Administering different antibiotics to Streptococcus salivarius will prohibit growth at different rates.
Antibiotics are substances produced by living organisms that inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Bacteria manufacture substances to inhibit or kill other microbes. Stated in Antibiotics and Disinfectants, "some antibiotics are used widely therapeutically but some are also too toxic to be of any medical value." The 1940s were the "dawn of the antibiotic era"(qtd. in Puglia).
Penicillin, which is often referred to as the "wonder drug", was accidentally discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. …
