The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health - Hardcover

David R. Montgomery; Anne Biklé

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393244407 ISBN 13: 9780393244403

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015

Synopsis

The Hidden Half of Nature lays out the astonishing reality we've been missing in the soil beneath our feet and right inside our bodies-our world depends on a foundation of invisible life. Montgomery and Bikle share a captivating story of the least-loved part of nature, taking readers through major milestones in agriculture and medicine to untangle our uneasy relationship with microbes. From the challenge of turning their barren Seattle lot into a flourishing garden through Bikle's struggle with a surprise cancer diagnosis, the authors discover the power nature's smallest creatures wield over our lives. Stunning parallels in the relationships that microbes develop with plant roots and the human gut reveal ways that farmers can restore degraded fields and doctors can reverse the modern epidemic of chronic diseases. For in cultivating the beneficial microbes that make soil fertile and keep us healthy, we can suture rifts never meant to be.

About this title

About the Author

David R. Montgomery is a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington and a 2008 MacArthur Fellow. He is the author of The Rocks Don't Lie and two other award-winning popular science books. Anne Bikle is a biologist and environmental planner. Her career spans the fields of environmental stewardship, habitat restoration, and public health. The Hidden Half of Nature is her first book.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393244407
• ISBN 13: 9780393244403
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320