About the book
The microbes living in and on every animal are partners rather than mere germs, Ed Yong argues, and they shape far more of life than many people assume. Those inside human bodies form part of the immune system, help break down food and sculpt organs. Elsewhere, bacteria give squid a kind of invisibility cloak and help beetles bring down forests, while deep-sea creatures that have no mouths or guts rely on microbes for all their energy. Yong widens the usual focus on human health to the whole animal kingdom and introduces the scientists working at the front of the field. His aim is for readers to see themselves less as individuals and more as interconnected multitudes.
Bill Gates wrote that Yong delivers on his promise of a grander view of life without settling for simplistic unifying explanations, and that he offers realistic optimism about what knowledge of the human microbiome could do for health.
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Bill Gates (CEO/Microsoft)
Yong succeeds in his intention to give us a 'grander view of life' and does so without falling prey to grand, unifying explanations that are far too simplistic. He presents our inner ecosystems in all their wondrous messiness and complexity. And he offers realistic optimism that our growing knowledge of the human microbiome will lead to great new opportunities for enhancing our health.
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