Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control warned that we’re facing an onslaught of “nightmare bacteria”–a group of highly resistant, highly deadly microbes. Talk of the Nation, the National Public Radio Show, asked me to join them to talk about these bugs yesterday. You can listen to it here:

This is the sort of story that seems tailor-made for confusion, thanks to the squirrelly nature of microbiology. As my fellow guest on the show, NPR science correspondent Rob Stein, observed, we are not dealing with an out-of-control plague that will wipe out the planet. On the other hand, as I pointed out, these nightmare bacteria are killing people, and will probably kill more people in the