Dr Rachel Wheatley spends her days fighting against the resistance - antibiotic resistance, that is. Antibiotic use is widespread today, with people often demanding antibiotics from doctors even when they don't have bacterial infections. Intensive farmers routinely dose animals with antibiotics as a preventative measure...but unfortunately the bacteria are starting to fight back. In this episode, we talk to Rachel about how bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics, how bacteria have their own immune systems (what?!) and just what exactly scientists are doing to prevent our ability to treat infections from being plunged back into the Dark Ages*.

*Paula keeps telling me off for incorrectly referring to the Dark Ages. I'd like to extend my sincere apologies to anyone from the Dark Ages who may be offended by this.