Fishing for gold

摘要

The marine environment is as diverse chemically as it is biologically.Since bioprospectors first began plumbing the oceans for their genetic treasures or 'blue gold' roughly 25 years ago,they have turned up more than 15 000 novel chemical compounds from marine creatures.Marine organisms are thought to contain higher numbers of potentially useful compounds than terrestrial ones partly owing to their survival mechanisms in extreme and varied environments.