INTRODUCTION “Antimicrobial resistance is the resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial to which it was previously susceptible.” (Media Center, 2012)Bacteria and viruses can become resistant and capable of resisting antimicrobials such as cleaning products, antibiotics and antivirals. These standard treatments to control bacteria and viruses become ineffective and allow infections to persist and spread. (Media Center, 2012)WHAT ARE BACTERIA?Bacteria have been around for a very long time. These are small cells that live in the environment, they can be individual or in clusters. Bacteria like their environment to be warm, dark and humid. Bacteria have three different shapes: spiral (spirilla), rod-shaped (bacilli, bacilli) and round (cocci).http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/Ins/00-01/HS /le1.GIFBacteria reproduce by binary fission and asexual reproduction. Binary fusion is where one bacteria divides into two bacteria. Asexual reproduction is where two organisms are needed to form one. Environmental factors that affect the growth of bacteria. These factors include nutrients, temperature, pH, pressure (osmotic and barometric), and gas requirements. (Engelikirk and Burton, 2007) Nutrients Every living organism, including bacteria, needs nutrients to survive. Bacteria obtain their energy by breaking the chemical bonds in these chemicals. Nutrients also provide sources of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur and other elements and trace elements essential for the growth and survival of bacteria. (Engelikirk and Burton, 2007)TemperatureMicroorganisms have a specific temperature at which they grow best, middle of paper......n. The main mechanisms of antimicrobial agents include inhibition of cell wall synthesis, damage to cell membranes, inhibition of nucleic acid synthesis, inhibition of protein synthesis, and inhibition of activity enzymatic. Antimicrobial agents do not normally cause an allergic reaction in the host, but some do. They are normally stable in solid or liquid form and remain in tissues long enough to be effective and normally kill pathogens before they mutate and become resistant. (Engelkirk and Burton, 2007)EXPERIMENT SURVEYING MICROBES AND MICROBIAL RESISTANCEDifferent antimicrobial agents will have different degrees of effectiveness against microbes. An experiment can be designed to observe the effectiveness of different antimicrobial agents on a specific microbe – Staphylococcus epidermidis – by performing an exclusion zone experiment..