Wait, is it really possible to say “nature can’t do this”?

I mean, think about the entire history of medicine, and science in general: how many times have we underestimated nature? Can we actually claim that nature can’t, under any conditions, evolve copper resistance?

I am a layman when it comes to biology, so I have no idea. But I’ve seen enough handwavey results in other fields where alarms are going off when I read that. Perhaps the skepticism is unjustified though.

On the other hand sunlight has been killing bacteria for ~4 billion years and their still vulnerable. So can’t might be a poor word choice, but biology does have hard limits it needs to deal with.

Cyanobacteria evolved to use the sunlight as energy, but that doesn't imply that other species could easily evolve that ability.

It is not inconceivable, but it is orders of magnitude more difficult.

Yeah, that makes no sense.

Resistance doesn't happen because the anti bacterial agent provokes mutations.

The process is that mutations happen all the time, and those that result in slightly higher survival rates over time dominates the population.

Yes a lot of replies in this topic sound like Lamarckism.

The mutation is a pre-existing condition that is selected for when everyone else dies or has a bad day, and you can now fill the empty space.

I don't follow your reasoning. If the membrane or viral coat aren't compromised then the contents remain safe. And that DNA will carry forward.