In the American Southwest, doctors recall the sober lessons of the hantavirus outbreak, a model of possible future viral outbreaks. Another doctor labors against cholera and typhoid fever in Central America, as curable diseases like these kill fifty thousand humans a day worldwide. But this is a cyclical thing. They reappear and appear, and they have done so throughout the whole of history. Microbes form its basis, as scientists have learned to mimic the very processes that make these tiny creatures earth's most successful life form.
Microbial technologies can make our planet cleaner, healthier, and more bountiful.
In Vancouver, a scientist manipulates the DNA of microbes in search of new drugs to help fight emerging antibiotic resistance. The torched earth of Chernobyl in the Ukraine may hold special promise for such a discovery, bursting with species that have adapted even to its massive radiation. A plant biologist in Zimbabwe struggles to create a microbial solution to a blight affecting an African plant that feeds a population the size of America's. In South Carolina, a scientist uses microbes to speed the biodegrading of toxic waste to a fraction of the usual time. Unseen Life on Earth is a four-part documentary airing on PBS in November 1999.