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" To comprehend the interactions between Homo sapiens and the vast and diverse microbial world, perspectives must be forged that meld such disparate fields as medicine, environmentalism, public health, basic ecology, primate biology, human behavior, economic development, cultural anthropology, human rights law, entomology, parasitology, virology, bacteriology, evolutionary biology, and epidemiology. "
― Laurie Garrett , The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
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" Special proteins that spanned the protective membrane of a microbe grabbed undesirable chemicals that had managed to get inside, dragged them through the membrane, and pumped the chlorine, antibiotic, detergent, or other compounds back outside before the chemicals could do any harm. It was an expensive way for a microbe to rid itself of a poison because it took molecular energy to operate a pump. But it worked, and when survival was at stake, some energy expenditure was a small price to pay. Bacteria, fungi, and parasites used such pumps to rid themselves of everything from antibiotics to arsenic, from zinc to chloroquine.93 "
― Laurie Garrett , The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance