
Bacteriophages: Discovery, Detection, and Applications in Modern Medicine
The history of bacteriophage discovery, how phages are detected in the environment, and why a century-old idea is now central to fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.

The history of bacteriophage discovery, how phages are detected in the environment, and why a century-old idea is now central to fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.

The structure of a bacteriophage, how lytic and temperate phages replicate, the cI/cro switch that decides lysis versus lysogeny, and how prophages give bacteria toxin genes (lysog...

How phage typing uses a bacterium's pattern of susceptibility to a phage panel to trace outbreaks, and why a "positive" result means the phage won.

How the plaque assay counts infectious phage particles, why a "plaque" is the opposite of a bacterial colony, and where the dilution math trips students up.

How a packaging mistake inside a bacteriophage accidentally hands a random bacterial gene to a new host, the 1952 experiment that revealed it, and why it still matters for antibiot...

How a temperate phage's imprecise exit from a bacterial chromosome hands off specific genes to a new host, the discovery that defined the phenomenon, and a full comparison with gen...