Abstract: The emergence of bacterial strains that are resistant to multiple antibiotics has made understanding antibiotic action and the development of new drugs an urgent goal. Many antibiotics act on the ribosome, the "factory" or "machine" in all cells that makes proteins using information encoded by genes. The ribosome itself was discovered about 50 years ago. However, because it is a huge complex of about 2.5 Megadaltons, obtaining its high resolution structure seemed an improbable goal even a decade ago. This situation has changed dramatically with the determination of atomic structures of both halves of the ribosome in 2000. These structures have made it possible to study the function of ribosomes in atomic detail. They have also made it possible for us directly to visualize antibiotics bound to the ribosome, leading to a better understanding of their action, which in turn could lead to the development of novel drugs. More recently, we have also solved the high-resolution structure of the entire ribosome. In this talk, I shall try to convey some of the excitement in the field that has arisen as a result of these recent discoveries.