Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our Lives

Name: Interesting Book about Microbes!
Item: Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our Lives
Rating: 5
Author: Thriftbooks.com User

By Jeanette Farrell

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Book Overview

Mmm-mmm, microbes! Although we are accustomed to equating the presence of microbes with disease, in fact most microbes play a vital "friendly" role in shaping our lives. It is not just that one hundred million microbes can populate a thimbleful of fertile soil, or that many millions live happily in as much of our saliva. Microbes are everywhere, and we could not survive without them. To emphasize their amazing ubiquity, Jeanette Farrell considers the invisible bugs essential to an everyday event: the eating ofa light lunch consisting of a cheese sandwich and a chocolate bar. Microbes create such a lunch, digest it, and, through the alchemy of decomposition, transform it so that the cycle can start all over again. In the course of her eye-opening narrative, Dr. Farrell relates the historical significance of using microbes to preserve foods, our long-standing ambivalence about the microbes that live on and in us, and our growing understanding of their importance.Interspersed with fascinating anecdotes and illustrations, Invisible Allies will transform the reader's perception of the microcosmic world - around and inside us.

Format:Hardcover

Language:English

ISBN:0374336083

ISBN13:9780374336080

Release Date:April 2005

Publisher:Farrar Straus Giroux

Length:176 Pages

Weight:0.88 lbs.

Dimensions:0.8" x 6.8" x 9.4"

Age Range:12 to 17 years

Grade Range:Grades 7 to 12

Related Subjects

Children's Children's Books Education & Reference Science & Technology Teen & Young Adult

Customer Reviews

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Interesting Book about Microbes!

Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago

My 10 year old son came across this book at our local library and checked it out. We've been reading it together for the past two days and found it very interesting (and not too difficult for my 10 yr old to understand although I had to help him with latin names for various bacteria). The bits of history mixed with science made the book fun & interesting to read :-)