Book description
A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Microcosm as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I know I’m double dipping here with another of Carl’s books. I love how he takes one, ubiquitous micro-inhabitant of the human body and uses it to explore what it means to be alive and interconnected with the life in and around us. I love how Carl flips away our human perspective to “view” the word through the chemical-sensing molecules of a single-celled organism – E. coli. Superb, fun science writing.
From Jessica's list on surviving and thriving in a microbial world.
A bacterium called Escherichia coli lives in the human gut. This snippet of life has been used in genetic experiments since the 1940s, allowing biologists to pick apart the way that information is encoded in DNA and expressed in every living thing. In this bacterial biography, Carl Zimmer takes the reader from the early investigations, including “the most beautiful experiment in biology” on DNA replication, to the ethical dilemmas posed by the manipulation of the bacterium by the biotechnology industry today.
From Nicholas' list on microbes and their amazing world.
If you love Microcosm...
The Silken Thread
This is not an insect book--it is a history book, but one that tells the history you didn't learn in school, or it tells the history in a way you never imagined. Five insects had a significant impact on human history. Silkworm moth, Oriental rat flea, human body louse, yellow…
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