Abstract
The eight previous Leeuwenhoek Lectures covered a great variety of problems is bacteriology and virology, and each of the lecturers paid an enthusiastic tribute Antony van Leeuwenhoek as the founder of microbiology. When the Council honoured me by their invitation to deliver the ninth Leeuwen hoek Lecture I thought that it would be appropriate to devote it to the problem of anabiosis or latent life.