Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World - Softcover

Dixon, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071674550X ISBN 13: 9780716745501

Publisher: W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

W H FREEMAN PBK,1996 IN USA,PHOTOS

About this title

Synopsis:

Microbes - tiny unseen bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa - pervade every aspect of human society and of the natural world. They provide all our daily food; they were the original source of the world's abundant oil supplies; their presence in soil is essential to the existence of life itself. They also cause horrendous epidemics, from the plague and smallpox of past centuries to the continuing pandemics of cholera and today's growing AIDS crisis. Microbes have vanquished armies, swinging great military campaigns even more effectively than the strategies of generals or the machinations of politicians; they now provide life-saving antibiotics and other benefits of modern biotechnology. Power Unseen portrays the many, diverse and often unexpected activities of microbes through a series of 75 vignettes, each focusing on one particular organism and its characteristic behaviour. Here, then, is a portrait gallery illustrating microbial life in its astonishing diversity. Microbes have influenced history and they are helping to shape our future. They are still springing surprises, and they continue to threaten us; yet we could not exist without them.

This book is intended for the general reader with an interest in science; biiologists, microbiologists.

About this edition

• Publisher: W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 071674550X
• ISBN 13: 9780716745501
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 255