The war of the worlds and antibiotic resistance: A case study for science teaching

Abstract

What is the web with which Spiderman swings, slides and jumps through the streets of New York City if not a long-chain polymer molecule, similar to nylon, that in contact with air knits and forms an extremely tough, flexible fibre with extraordinary adhesive properties? Did you know that the ultrafast lasers utilized for 'capturing' the temporal behaviour of chemical and biological reactions are similar to the ones with which every spaceship involved in Star Wars was equipped? Have you ever thought that Superman's 'X-ray eyesight' that allows him to see through solid objects works on the same principle of the X-ray crystallography that allows chemists, physicists and biologists to 'see' molecules and proteins?