---
title: 'Why We Haven''t Found a New Antibiotic in 40 Years'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=HjBbm9dWVac'
video_id: 'HjBbm9dWVac'
date: 2026-09-02
duration_sec: 84
channel: 'MinuteEarth'
---

# Why We Haven't Found a New Antibiotic in 40 Years

> Source: [Why We Haven't Found a New Antibiotic in 40 Years](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HjBbm9dWVac)

## Summary

The video explains the historical method of antibiotic discovery, the discovery drought that began in the 1970s, and the new strategies scientists are using to find novel antibiotics, such as DNA sequencing and exploring non-soil environments like the ocean.

### Key Points

- **Traditional antibiotic discovery method** [00:00] — Scientists take soil samples containing microbes, grow them on petri dishes, and observe if they produce chemical weapons useful as antibiotics.
- **Early successes of the soil-based approach** [00:12] — This method initially discovered antibiotics that attack bacterial cell walls, protein production, and DNA.
- **Discovery drought begins** [00:27] — In the 1970s, new types of antibiotics stopped being found; researchers only found variations of known antibiotics.
- **Root cause: only 3% of microbes grow in petri dishes** [00:40] — The basic discovery process was flawed because only about 3% of known microbes reproduce in petri dishes, limiting the pool of discoverable antibiotics.
- **Consequences: no new antibiotics in 40 years** [00:52] — Doctors haven't been able to prescribe a new type of antibiotic in nearly 40 years, while bacteria evolve resistance to existing ones.
- **New strategy: DNA sequencing** [01:04] — Researchers can now sift through microbial DNA to identify potential antibiotic-making genes without growing the microbes.
- **New strategy: exploring other environments** [01:19] — Scientists are looking for microbes in places other than soil, like the ocean, which is full of unknown and potentially useful microbial life.

### Conclusion

The video highlights the urgent need for new antibiotics and the innovative approaches—DNA sequencing and exploring new environments—that may help overcome the discovery drought.

## Transcript

Almost all of our antibiotics have been discovered in the exact same way. Scientists, they take a sample of soil, which tends to contain tons of microbes, and they grow those microbes on a petri dish in order to see if they produce any
chemical weapons that could possibly be useful to us. Early on, this approach kept turning up new types of antibiotics. Some that attack bacteria's cell walls, others that attack their protein production, and still others that attack their DNA. But in the 1970s,
these discoveries stopped. Instead, researchers just kept finding new variations of the same old types of antibiotics that they already knew about. Now, the problem had to do with their basic
discovery process. Only about 3% of known microbes actually reproduce in petri dishes. Because of this discovery drought, doctors haven't been able to prescribe a new type of antibiotic in nearly
40 years. And in the meantime, bacteria have been evolving resistance to the antibiotics we do have, leaving some of these weapons that were once great powerless. So scientists are switching up their
search strategies. And these days, researchers don't even have to grow microbes to see what they're capable of. They can simply sift through their DNA to identify potential antibiotic-making genes. Scientists are also looking for microbes in places other than soil, like in the ocean,
which is full of unknown and potentially useful microbial life.