But not bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Nor was the mechanism of antibiotic resistance understood until natural selection was discovered. Antibiotic protocols use evolutionary theory to most effectively apply antibiotics in a way that delays the evolution of antibiotic resistance.
One researcher has gone a step further, analyzing the responses of bacteria to predict the likely evolution of additional resistance to help determine how to avoid that resistance in the future:
Darwin’s Time Machine: Scientists Begin Predicting Evolution’s Next Step
**ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2002) — Untangling the branches of evolution’s past is a daunting enough task for researchers, but some scientists are now turning their eyes toward the future in a bid to predict evolution’s course. Barry G. Hall, professor of biology at the University of Rochester, has shown how a model of evolution developed in the lab accurately reproduces natural evolution. The research, published in the March issue of Genetics, demonstrates how the model is so accurate that it can be used to predict how a strain of bacteria will become resistant to antibiotics-giving researchers a possible tool to create drugs to which bacteria cannot adapt. **
sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/03/020320081607.htm
Antibiotic protocols are treatment plans designed so as to minimize the evolution of resistant bacteria. This is why you should follow directions for taking antibiotics very closely. Failure to do so could increase the likelihood of a new strain of resistance evolving.