Happy Microbes, convened to honor the officially retiring Nicolas Glansdorff, paid tribute to his paramount interests in both extremophiles and the origin of life. The meeting was held on September 27, 2003, under the auspices of the Belgian Society for Microbiology, in the Etterbeek Campus of the Vrije Universiteit of Brussels (VUB, the Flemish Free University), the University in which Glansdorff was Professor of Microbiology. The Symposium was organized by Pierre Cornelis (Microbiology, VUB, Brussels), Paul Janssen, Max Mergeay (both at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center, Mol), and Adrianne Toussaint (Université Libre de Bruxelles; the French-speaking counterpart to VUB). An enthusiastic audience of approximately one hundred met to embark on a fascinating experience through space-time and the world of microbiology.Peer reviewed