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The article looks at drug development and biodiversity. Dr William Gerwick is a member of an organization called the International Co-operative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG), which seeks applications for knowledge about biodiversity. Thanks to his collaboration with another ICBG member, Eduardo Ortega, a parasitologist at Panama's Institute for Advanced Scientific Investigations, he has discovered that scum (or, rather, the cyanobacteria of which it is composed) does indeed contain potential drugs. Dr Ortega's contribution has been to come up with a clever way of testing whether the organisms Dr Gerwick and others find on their expeditions are plausible candidates for the treatment of disease. At the moment, they are using this method to test their finds for activity against leishmaniasis, malaria and, most recently, dengue fever. So far, a number of promising leads have been discovered, including a cyanobacterium with a very high activity against malaria. The two researchers also believe that even though no drugs have yet been developed, the project has been a success.