I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong

I Contain Multitudes

By Ed Yong

  • Release Date: 2016-08-09
  • Genre: Biology
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 104 Ratings

Description

New York Times Bestseller

New York Times Notable Book of 2016 • NPR Great Read of 2016 • Named a Best Book of 2016 by The Economist, Smithsonian, NPR's Science Friday, MPR, Minnesota Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, Times (London)

From Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth.

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are.

The microbes in our bodies are part of our immune systems and protect us from disease. In the deep oceans, mysterious creatures without mouths or guts depend on microbes for all their energy. Bacteria provide squid with invisibility cloaks, help beetles to bring down forests, and allow worms to cause diseases that afflict millions of people.

Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners, and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.

Reviews

  • Good introduction to microbiome connections

    5
    By MrProteinshake
    This is a good book if you are at all interested in microbiome research, consider this book your first microbiome introduction read. It will not teach you anything a single research article can teach you in one single introduction, but if what you are after is getting a overall introduction on the science behind the microbiome we interact with, this is the book.
  • A new perspective on microbiology.

    4
    By Richard Bakare
    Asking better questions about our health starts with having a deeper knowledge of how we work. Ed Yong nails that exploration in this book. A readily accessible scientific journey into the microscopic inner worlds of our bodies. Simultaneously, it is a macro level look at how everything works by way of its tiniest building blocks. Ed Yong’s narrative style is the pull that keeps the pages turning. You can’t help but wonder how much more of your science classes you would have enjoyed had the texts been written so engagingly as this one. Beautiful anecdotal examples break down complex scientific principles for the Everyman. A careful build up interspersed with beautifully descriptive imagery, gives the book a novelistic tone that you won’t find in any AP Bio course. And what you learn is truly powerful. You will finish this book and end up with a whole new relationship with the food you intake, gut health, and your relationship to the complex yet invisible bacterial universe around you. A key takeaway for me was that I need to learn to reach for the opposite of whatever my default craving is.