Existing antibiotics found in the dirt
- An agriculture student-turned-microbiologist, Selman Waksman, tested 10,000 soil samples over the years.
- In 1943, he identified streptomycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic effective against tuberculosis.
- Drug companies caught on to it, and commissioned pilots, explorers, and foreign correspondents sent back soil samples as they traveled, collecting dozens of new antibiotics.
- By 1970, researchers found themselves discovering the same molecules over and over.
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