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I Contain Multitudes

The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

By (author) Ed Yong
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom
Imprint: The Bodley Head Ltd
Published: 1st Sep 2016
Dimensions: w 157mm h 242mm d 33mm
Weight: 770g
ISBN-10: 1847923283
ISBN-13: 9781847923288
Barcode No: 9781847923288
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Synopsis
'Super-interesting ... He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best' BILL GATES SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2017 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Selected as a Science Book of the Year by The Economist, The Times and Observer Your body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It's an entire world, a colony full of life. In other words, you contain multitudes. These microscopic companions sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us with their genes. They also hold the key to understanding all life on earth. In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution, and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage. In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see yourself.

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Super-interesting... He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best -- Bill Gates [A] marvellous, thrilling and richly annotated book... I call it marvellous: everything about the microbial world is to be marvelled at. And it is a page-turner in a very old-fashioned sense. All life is here, and death too, and sex and violence, including deviations of which you had never dreamed ... We have an inner life, in every sense, and are the richer for it: richer still for this witty and compelling book. -- Tim Radford * Guardian * Beyond fascinating. An amazing book. It'll change the way you think about the world. It'll change who you think you are. -- Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk Momentous ... an essential read -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * I Contain Multitudes makes the importance of popularising science...sparklingly clear... From his vibrant introduction to his witty endnotes, Yong's expertise and narration hold no less wonder than a sacred text. -- Kate Womersley * Spectator * Masterful ... smart, canny, and often quite beautiful ... In the realm of the life sciences there is a noble tradition of popular books that ... have reshaped our view of the world ... In my own reading I think of Schroedinger's What is Life, Dawkins' The Selfish Gene and, more recently, Nick Lane's The Vital Question. Among such company, I Contain Multitudes can hold its head high. * Guardian * I Contain Multitudes has a terrific story to tell ... Ed Yong is a talented British science writer ... his first book covers a huge amount of microscopic territory in clear, strong, often epigrammatic prose ... He is infectiously enthusiastic about microbes and he describes them with verve ... Even the book's endnotes are rich with interesting asides, swarming with interesting sidelights, a teeming microbial world. -- Jonathan Weiner * New York Times * I also very much enjoyed and admired I Contain Multitudes. -- Bill Bryson * Observer, Book of the Year * An account that is far, far more entertaining than an exploration of microbes should be. -- Tom Whipple * The Times, Book of the Year * [An] utterly absorbing and hugely important book... [Yong] is an extraordinary adept guide. Writing with lightness and panache, he has a knack of explain complex science in terms that are both easy to understand and totally enthralling... I Contain Multitudes is popular science writing at its best. Reading this book will make you view the world differently. -- Wendy Moore * Literary Review * [A] densely fascinating and elegant book... Yong's book is vividly enjoyable. * Daily Telegraph * [Yong is] one of our best and brightest popularisers of science. Yong's boundless curiosity and infectious enthusiasm make him the perfect guide to complex scientific ideas, while the clarity and concision of his writing ensure that the lay reader is not made to fell unduly daunted... Excellent book' -- Simon Griffith * Mail on Sunday * Ed Yong has done something beautiful, and unlikely: he's rendered the unseen world of bacteria thrilling, captivating and highly entertaining. This is a much-needed guide to the hidden kingdom that dominates life on Earth. It cuts through all the buzzwordy hooey and flakey hype of microbiomes with a scientifically steady hand, but told with an infectious sense of awe. -- Adam Rutherford, broadcaster and author of Creation Yong vividly describes the intricate alliances forged by microbes with every other organism on the planet... The most delightful part of Yong's book is that he does not just tell the stories of microbiomes, he also introduces readers to dozens of the scientists studying them... Their stories and conversations radiate the excitement of unlocking new secrets. -- Susan Perkins * Science * 'I Contain Multitudes is wonderful. Deeply strange, true, funny, beautifully written' -- William Gibson [It] bowls along wonderfully... His hero, Sir David [Attenborough], would surely approve. * The Economist * Ed Yong's magnificent revaluation of bacteriology, I Contain Multitudes, counsels humility for student doctors like me: modern medicine's pathogens may be the future's therapeutics. -- Kate Womersley * Spectator * A science journalist's first book is an excellent, vivid introduction to the all-enveloping realm of our secret sharers. -- Editor's Choice * New York Time Book Review * [A] fascinating and lively study. -- Michael Prodger * The Times * Beautiful, smart, and sometimes shocking * Wired *