A massively spectacular view of the chemical lives of microbes

摘要

Knowledge that microbes lead fascinating chemical lives is as old as microbiology itself. Observations in the late 19th century by Burdon-Sanderson (1) that were elaborated on by Pasteur and Joubert (2) gave rise to the idea that compounds secreted by some microbes could have remarkable effects on the lives of others. The accretion of such knowledge continued steadily through the early years of the 20th century until the quantum leap emanating from Fleming's seminal discovery of penicillin (3).