Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World - Couverture souple

Dixon, Bernard

 
9780716745501: Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World

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.

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Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780716745044: Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0716745046 ISBN 13 :  9780716745044
Editeur : Oxford University Press, 1994
Couverture rigide