I Contain Multitudes
by Ed Yong
Buy on AmazonSHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2017 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.…
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"That multilayered significance is what English science writer and microbiology elucidator Ed Yong explores in I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life ( public library ) — a book so fascinating and elegantly written as to be worthy of its Whitman reference , in which Yong peels the veneer of the visible to reveal the astonishing complexity of life thriving beneath and within the crude confines of our perception."
Best Science Books of 2016 · themarginalian.org
"This is a book about the millions of microbes that live inside us, and yet — it’s not gross! As you might guess from the Walt Whitman reference in the title, Ed Yong is a romantic — and a tremendously fun science writer. The book took me from laughter to near-theological epiphany, and best of all, it left me with actual facts about bacteria (rather than just vague fears) that I’ve found can come in handy as I go about my day, living in the world."
NPR Books We Love — 2016 · apps.npr.org
Patrick Collison's Bookshelf · patrickcollison.com
Publishers Weekly's Best Books — 2016 · publishersweekly.com
"Ed Yong, with his two exquisite books on microorganisms and on animal senses: "I Contain Multitudes" and "An Immense World.""
By the Book: Sarah Bakewell · nytimes.com