Mummies and tetracycline. Not a combination you hear much about, but mummified bodies from the ancient world show traces of tetracycline.
So we've had antibiotics for a very long time, just without knowing what they were or what they did. The trouble came with the constant use of antibiotics once we understood them; now we have bacteria that have developed immunity to antibiotics.
These are the Superbugs of the title of Dr. Matt McCarthy's book. He is a physician and teacher and part of a trial to develop a new antibiotic that offers hope of getting past the obstacles of the superbugs. We pick his brain about the history, misuse, and future of antibiotics.