MK ATLAS· Science Atlas

We Have Never Lived Alone

It starts with a drop of water. The tiny neighbours first seen only 300 years ago ripen kimchi and makgeolli, carry disease on an unwashed doctor's hands, share our meals in the gut, and made the air of the Earth. Eight pieces, each ending by correcting one common myth — including the idea that good and bad germs are fixed for life.

Walk this route on the map →

Leg 1 · Who Lives in a Drop of Water?

  1. 11665Robert Hooke · The cell
  2. 21676Van Leeuwenhoek · Microbes

Leg 2 · What Is Rotting? — Who Makes Kimchi and Makgeolli

  1. 31861Pasteur

Leg 3 · Bacteria, Viruses, Moulds — Why Antibiotics Don't Touch a Cold

  1. 41898Beijerinck · The virus

Leg 4 · Can Washing Your Hands Save a Life? — The Doctor Nobody Believed

  1. 51847Semmelweis
  2. 61882Robert Koch

Leg 5 · The Tenants in My Body — No Germ Is Good or Bad by Nature

  1. 71907Metchnikoff · Lactic bacteria and ageing
  2. 81984Barry Marshall · Helicobacter

Leg 6 · The Contaminated Dish — Bacteria Learn Faster Than We Do

  1. 91928Fleming · Penicillin
  2. 101928Frederick Griffith · Transformation

Leg 7 · Can a Small Illness Prevent a Great One? — Rehearsing the Body

  1. 111796Jenner · Vaccination
  2. 121980Smallpox eradication

Leg 8 · Who Keeps the Earth Running? — The Air You Are Breathing Was Made by Microbes

  1. 131965Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation
  2. 141967Lynn Margulis · The bacteria inside the cell

Updated 2026-09-12