I Contain Multitudes I Contain Multitudes

I Contain Multitudes

The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

    • 4.5 • 104 Ratings
    • $15.99
    • $15.99

Publisher 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.

GENRE
Science & Nature
RELEASED
2016
August 9
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
368
Pages
PUBLISHER
Ecco
SELLER
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
SIZE
4
MB

Customer Reviews

Sam Barnum ,

Ideal Science Book

Fascinating topic and extremely well written. Just the right amount of detail on the experiments used.

MrProteinshake ,

Good introduction to microbiome connections

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.

Richard Bakare ,

A new perspective on microbiology.

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.

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More Books by Ed Yong

An Immense World An Immense World
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The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2021 The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2021
2021
Yo contengo multitudes Yo contengo multitudes
2017
La inmensidad del mundo La inmensidad del mundo
2023
Obsahuji davy Obsahuji davy
2017
Ohromný svet Ohromný svet
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