Insecticide resistance versus antimicrobial resistance. Biological issues in historical perspective.

Abstract

The developments of insecticide resistance in insects and antimicrobial resistance in bacteria seem to have not too many aspects in common, due to the diverse nature of eukaryotes and prokaryotes cells and organisms. However, there are several approaches, both in the history of ecological systems and in the History of Science, that can successfully be applied to explain aspects of developments shared by both phenomena of resistance. Looking back to a century of discoveries, scientific explanations, industrial, agricultural, and medical practice, the historian is especially well placed for investigating the lessons to be learned and to be exchanged at the boundaries of research on resistant insects and microbes.