There used to be four. These four who, a very long time ago, learnt to prosper in the dark, dank alleyways of humanity’s drains and gutters. In every corner of the world, they scuttled and scampered, infested and infected. They fought over pieces of rotten food, over garbage, over dung, over rotting human corpses unloved and unwanted. They were near-immortal, these vermin and fungi, and any attempt to destroy them with poison or pesticide was met with failure. They were once harbingers of disease and pestilence too, but penicillin and other medicines have shackled their powers somewhat. Somewhat.
When people began to develop other new chemicals for warfare, for combatting pests, for lubricating their machines and for driving their industries, I was born. In the heyday of the Industrial Re
