The Charles River serves as the backdrop of Boston University’s mile-long campus, yet many BU students only experience it from afar—and after watching this video, you might not blame them.
“We’ve been finding lots and lots of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the Charles River,” says Veronica Gates (CGS’24, CAS’26), an undergraduate researcher in the College of General Studies. “It’s a little gross.”
Gates, along with five other CGS students, spent this past summer dipping their hands and sample tubes into the Charles, and bringing water samples back to campus to test for the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotics are a class of medication used to treat a number of common ailments—including strep throat, ear infections, and bacterial pneumonia—and the rise of bacteria in our environment that are resistant to antibiotics poses a major threat to public health.
