The author reflects on the developments made by the journal "Nature Reviews Microbiology" since its introduction in October 2003, focusing on selected topics from its first issues, relative to its 10th anniversary in 2013. The author mentions the opinion piece by Christopher Walsh in the October 2003 issue on innovation gap in antimicrobial development. The author discusses the review on the persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Douglas Young and colleagues in the November 2003 issue.