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Beautiful Bacteria: Encounters in the Microuniverse
A leading bacteria scientist combines unique photographic techniques and accessible text to reveal the microbial world within and around us.
Beautiful Bacteria merges stunning imagery with a new way of looking at something we interact with every day. Each chapter introduces the different types of bacteria around us, illustrated with singularly beautiful photographs of these minute life forms and an approachable text that explains where the bacteria is located and what it does. Much as New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes did, Beautiful Bacteria brings the invisible world that has shaped our species to life.
While we know microbes in our world are relevant, the focus of this book is what the invisible, microbial world looks like, where it comes from, and where new discoveries and biotechnology are taking us. Looking at the microbial world reveals countless questions about life and connects with the personal realm of bacteria in our daily lives. From the dazzling patterns of Proteus mirabilis to the shimmering fractals of E. coli and more, each chapter touches upon the little-seen microscopic universe and the impact it has on our macroscopic society, and sheds light on how we coexist in an increasingly biotechnological world.
Beautiful Bacteria merges stunning imagery with a new way of looking at something we interact with every day. Each chapter introduces the different types of bacteria around us, illustrated with singularly beautiful photographs of these minute life forms and an approachable text that explains where the bacteria is located and what it does. Much as New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes did, Beautiful Bacteria brings the invisible world that has shaped our species to life.
While we know microbes in our world are relevant, the focus of this book is what the invisible, microbial world looks like, where it comes from, and where new discoveries and biotechnology are taking us. Looking at the microbial world reveals countless questions about life and connects with the personal realm of bacteria in our daily lives. From the dazzling patterns of Proteus mirabilis to the shimmering fractals of E. coli and more, each chapter touches upon the little-seen microscopic universe and the impact it has on our macroscopic society, and sheds light on how we coexist in an increasingly biotechnological world.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published March 26, 2024
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April 14, 2025
" I examined the water in which I had steeped the pepper I formerly mentioned; and as if I had been looking upon a Sea, I saw infinite of small living Creatures swimming and playing up and down in it, a thing indeed very wonderful to behold." - Robert Hooke (1678)
This is a very pretty book of bacteria photography that was beautiful on some pages and just meh on others. Tal Danino (a synthetic biologist at Columbia) wrote a bunch of short essays to accompany these photos which I thought were a nice touch for those wanting something deeper than the psychedelic petri dishes. This book didn't blow me away, but it was a nice (and aesthetically pleasing) reminder that each of us do contain multitudes... or more accurately 38 trillion bacteria lol.
Maria Popova wrote a wonderful article about this book if you want to take a glance at some of these photographs for yourself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review