Introducing the Atacama Desert.

This brief introduction is intended to orientate the reader with respect to the principal environmental and historical features of the Atacama Desert, the oldest and continuously driest non-polar temperate desert on Earth. Exploration of its microbiology is relatively recent but both fundamental and applied research activities have grown dramatically in recent years reflecting the substantial interest in its microbial diversity, ecology, biogeochemistry, natural product potential and Mars-analogue properties of this unique and invigorating environment.