Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria
- By Anne Maczulak
- Published Jul 12, 2010 by FT Press. Part of the FT Press Science series.
- Copyright 2011
- Dimensions: 6 X 9
- Pages: 224
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-13-701546-1
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-701546-7
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Product Author Bios
Anne Maczulak (Novato, CA) is a Ph.D. microbiologist who has worked and consulted on water quality/sewage, and most recently for MedImmune manufacturing flu vaccine. She has written several books for Facts on File, as well as an encyclopedia of microbiology for younger readers, and one trade book, The Five-Second Rule and Other Myths about Germs. She is a regular guest on Sirius/XM’s Martha Stewart Living Radio, where she takes callers’ questions on germs. Maczulak provides independent consulting services to small and growing companies, academic research laboratories, and analytical labs through her company, Acorn GLP Consulting.
Bacteria are invisible, mysterious, deadly, self-sufficient…and absolutely essential for all life, including yours. No other living things combine their elegant simplicity with their incredibly complex role: Bacteria keep us alive, supply our food, and regulate our biosphere. We can’t live a day without them, and no chemical, antibiotic, or irradiation has ever successfully eradicated them. They’re our partners, like it or not--even though some of them will happily kill us.
Allies and Enemies tells the story of this amazing, intimate partnership. Authored by Anne Maczulak, a microbiologist who’s hunted and worked with an extraordinary array of bacteria, this book offers a powerful new perspective on Earth’s oldest creatures. You’ll discover how bacteria work, how they evolve, their surprising contributions and uses, the roles they’ve played in human history, and why you can't survive without them. No form of life is more important, and in Maczulak’s hands, none is more fascinating.
Outlasted, outnumbered, outsmarted
They’ve been here four billion years--and they even outnumber you in your own body
How bacteria keep you alive…
…and how to keep them from killing you
“Humans Defeat Germs!”
But not for long…
The Invisible Universe
The stunning hidden relationships between bacteria and the rest of nature
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Great addition to anyone's science library. Well done!, By
This review is from: Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Ms. Maczulak did an excellent job with this book. It's factually correct and well-written, making it both pleasurable and educational to read. That's really saying something, considering that college texts on the subject of microbiology have a reputation for being rather challenging to read and understand. It's not that those books are badly done, it's that the topic is complex.Ms. Maczulak removes the complexity to bring us a good overview of the role of bacteria in our lives and in the larger world around us. She exposes and corrects many myths, while also keeping her narrative in a framework that moves forward and helps the reader get "the big picture." Without crossing it, she walks the fine line between eye-glazing detail and enough detail to be a rich read. My eyes didn't glaze over once, during my reading of this book. When I started reading this book, I thought it would be a good academic refresher. Before I finished reading it, that thought changed... Read more
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Perfect for a High School Library,
This review is from: Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Don't take the title of my review as a slur, it's actually a complement. A sharp high school student wouldn't have a problem reading this book and an adult won't feel either talked down to or bored. Every student should read a book like this in school.I think a lot of people in general need to read books like this for a little perspective. When you're at the gym, at the mall, or at work, you'll see people putting on hand sanitizer after they touch anything and freaking out about germs. Watch some TV for a short time and you're bound to see some product that will protect your kids because it's antibiotic implying you're obviously a bad parent if you don't run out and buy it right now! Woo...the germs are gonna get ya! Well, no they're probably not. You have this thing called an immune system that tends to handle most of that kind of thing and it pre-dates these products by quite a while. That's not to say the stuff is useless, just that soap and water and avoiding... Read more
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Probably accurate, this book seems not to know its audience, By
This review is from: Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria (FT Press Science) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I was not sure what to expect from this book. The subtitle, "How the World Depends on Bacteria," made me think this might be for the layperson. After all, it's rather basic knowledge, I thought, the popularity of antibacterial soaps aside, that we depend on bacteria. So I had hoped for a book written for laypeople but substantial enough to keep the interest of an intelligent audience.What I found was a surfeit of technical terms that made the reading rather slow and dull. If I were a biology student, I would expect to have to know the terms. As a well-educated general reader, I would prefer a book that proceeds more smoothly, that neither condescends nor preaches, and that conveys a sense of enthusiasm. In typing this list, I think of books like Richard Rhodes Deadly Feasts, which I read as a complete layperson and from which I... Read more |
Online Sample Chapter
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments viii
About the Author ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Why the world needs bacteria 7
Tricks in bacterial survival 9
Bacterial communities 13
Under the microscope 16
The size of life 20
The bacteria of the human body 25
The origins of our bacteria 29
One planet 32
Chapter 2 Bacteria in history 35
The ancients 37
The legacy of bacterial pathogens 39
The plague 42
Microbiologists save the day 46
Unheralded heroes of bacteriology 50
On the front 58
Chapter 3 “Humans defeat germs!”(but not for long) 63
What is an antibiotic? 64
Inventing drugs is like making sausage 68
Mutant wars 73
Bacteria share their DNA 77
The opportunists 78
Chapter 4 Bacteria in popular culture 83
Bacteria and art 83
Bacteria in the performing arts 84
Friends and enemies 89
Do bacteria devour art? 91
Chapter 5 An entire industry from a single cell 99
E. coli 103
The power of cloning 106
A chain reaction 109
Bacteria on the street 112
Anthrax 116
Why we will always need bacteria 117
Chapter 6 The invisible universe 121
Versatility begets diversity 124
Cyanobacteria 128
Bacterial protein factories 131
How to build an ecosystem 135
Feedback and ecosystem maintenance 138
Macrobiology 141
Chapter 7 Climate, bacteria, and a barrel of oil 145
The story of oil 147
Bacteria power 149
How is a cow like a cockroach? 150
Microscopic power plants 154
The waste problem 155
Bacteria on Mars 160
Shaping the planet 162
Epilogue How microbiologists grow bacteria 165
Serial dilution 165
Counting bacteria 167
Logarithms 168
Anaerobic microbiology 169
Aseptic technique 170
Appendix Resources for learning more about bacteria 173
Internet resources on bacteria 173
Book resources on bacteria 173
Classic reading on bacteria 174
Bacteria rule references 175
Index 197
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