This is an insider's account of 50 years of genetic studies of the soil-inhabiting microbes that produce most of the antibiotics used to treat infections, as well as anti-cancer, anti-parasitic and immunosuppressant drugs. The book begins by describing how these microbes - the actinomycetes - were discovered in the latter part of the nineteenth century, but remained a 'Cinderella' group until, in the 1940s, they shot to prominence with the discovery of streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis and only the second antibiotic after penicillin to become a medical marvel. There followed a massive effort over several decades to.
