Question: how do you kill bacteria

Jess Bean answered on 18 Jun 2013:

Bacteria can be killed by quite a lot of things surprisingly!

Bacteria are just like normal cells, so they can be killed by heating them up a lot (over 100 °C), drying them out, or squashing them with high pressure.

These can be quite fiddly and time consuming ways, so we normally use chemicals instead. These chemicals can be split into 2 categories – antibiotics and disinfectants.

Antibiotics (and antimicrobials) are chemicals that kill bacteria that are made in nature. These interfere in the way bacteria live, grow or replicate by damaging them.

Disinfectants are any chemicals that kill bacteria. They include bleach, antiseptics (like alcohol sprays) or harsher chemicals like hydrogen peroxide!