How bacteria is transported through the environment into the ocean

Much of our waste from homes, hospitals, and farms contains bacteria and antibiotics that make their way to wastewater treatment plants and rivers and end up in the ocean, where they mix antibiotics and naturally occurring marine bacteria. MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Megan May is studying antibiotic-resistant bacteria within the large microbial ecosystem of the ocean, which could have impacts on human health. (Illustration by Natalie Renier, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)