Feature
Facing up to a looming crisis
The dramatic increase of antibioticresistant microbes could render us defenseless against common infections, undoing a century of medical progress. Strategies to counter it are emerging—but the clock is ticking.
The dramatic increase of antibioticresistant microbes could render us defenseless against common infections, undoing a century of medical progress. Strategies to counter it are emerging—but the clock is ticking.
In early 2020, researchers everywhere united, scrambling to address a singular, urgent problem: a virus that was devastating the world. How they work and collaborate might never again be the same—it might be better.
Therapeutics has gone underground. From one bag of soil, chemists can now procure millions of microbial molecules. Any one could be tomorrow’s lifesaving medicine.