Biofilm: Why the sudden interest?

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the role of biofilms in perpetuating the chronicity and severity of bacterial infections. Enter the word biofilm as a search criterion with PubMed (National Library of Medicine) and you will doubtless be surprised to recover over 4000 citations, with nearly 3000 registered since 2000. So why has there been such an explosion of interest in this phenomenon? This article seeks to provide a brief overview of the subject, with particular reference to the role that biofilms may have to play in otologic disease.