<![CDATA[Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life]]>

false <![CDATA[Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life]]>

2051708

•Within days of being born, we are infected with billions of E. coli. They will inhabit each and every one of us until we die. E. coli is notorious for making people gravely ill, but engineered strains of the bacteria save millions of lives each year. •Despite its microscopic size, E.coli contains more than four thousand genes that operate a staggeringly sophisticated network of millions of molecules. •Scientists are rebuilding E. coli from the ground up, redefining our understanding of life on Earth. In the tradition of classics like Lewis Thomas's Lives of a Cell, Carl Zimmer has written a fascinating and utterly accessible investigation of what it means to be alive. Zimmer traces E. coli's remarkable history, showing how scientists used it to discover how genes work and then to launch the entire biotechnology industry. While some strains of E. coli grab headlines by causing deadly diseases, scientists are retooling the bacteria to produce everything from human insulin to jet fuel. Microcosm is the story of the one species on Earth that science knows best of all. It's also a story of life itself--of its rules, its mysteries, and its future.

2056731

2008

Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life

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4 0 false false Tue Dec 30 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 02:29:14 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 02:41:13 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 07:51:36 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 14:48:44 -0800 2009 http://www.scienceblogs.com/loom ) is always great for keeping up with scientific developments in words that a layperson can understand, and his other books (I've read Parasite Rex, At the Water's Edge, and Soul Made Flesh) have been quite good. His...more...]]> 4 1 false true Tue Nov 18 23:24:04 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 23:26:06 -0800 2008 e coli is the research tool
and it turns out
out the cellular level
we might just as well be too
That is most of what these bacteria do
we do too
just not on any conscious level
Good think to know?
Depends on your point of view
:>)]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jun 15 08:31:25 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 11:29:42 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Fri Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 17:15:46 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 07:20:31 -0700 2008
Incidentally, I have a hard time with figures like virus spreading genes "4 quadrillion times each second" beneath the oce...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 31 15:24:46 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 04:26:24 -0700 2008 Escherichia coli is best known for occasionally causing food poisoning outbreaks, but most strains of it are harmless and indeed a normal part of our gut flora. It's also one of the most-studied life forms on earth because, like fruit flies and white mice, they are used as a standard la...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 13:57:49 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 20 04:57:11 -0700 2008 review for the Sunday Times is now up on their site. Here's how it begins

"If you are interested in how living things work down at the cellular level, then this is a good time to be alive. It is not, however, an equally good time to be reading popular-science books. While evolutio...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 07:35:21 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 12:54:02 -0700 2008 Scienceblogs book club. They talked about it at length and I found the discussion incredibly interesting. Particularly the discussion on Richard Lenski's publishing of his research whereby he observed E. coli evolve the ability to consume the citrate medium...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 14:22:37 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 03 14:00:49 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 15:52:39 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 16:08:44 -0700 2008 Carl Zimmer is one of my favorite science writers, precisely because I know how difficult it is to walk the fine line between explaining the intricacies of science and not overwhelming readers with abstruse detail. In general, Zimmer does a fine job of this in Microcosm, in which he explores j...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 11:47:03 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 11:53:36 -0800 2008 Poetic. Enthusiastic, but easily drawn into hyperbole.
First three or four chapters is a rehash of graduate level biology course work undertaken.
I found the chapter on viral evolution very interesting. ]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 12 14:04:46 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 14:12:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 02 18:52:03 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 15 14:22:41 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 03 11:22:12 -0800 2008 Tue Aug 04 18:06:59 -0700 2009
I found out about Carl Zimmer from his collection of Science Tattoos. I began following his blog, The Loom, and found his writing to be interesting and very readable. A colleague of mine and I started talking about him (she had recently gotten a science tattoo!) and she hig...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Sep 12 09:33:27 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 09:34:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Feb 17 06:42:38 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 06:53:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Feb 16 07:08:07 -0800 2009 Thu Jun 25 07:16:49 -0700 2009 1 Microcosm kept the book charming and light, while the brief stops for "serious" science made it about as e...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Sep 09 20:56:43 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 20:54:24 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 20:56:43 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 10 12:12:04 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 13 18:49:04 -0700 2008
liberal arts majors: it is time to branch out! if you need backing for all your smart, leftist views, for example, zimmer talks extensive...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 17:53:26 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 17:57:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2051708