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I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

Ed Yong

4.17 · Rating details · 12,350 ratings · 1,605 reviews

Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial ...more

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Kindle Edition, 373 pages

Published August 9th 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers

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May 20, 2016 Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, public-health, science, nature, brain-candy, food-nutrition, books-of-the-year-2016

You’ve got company.

description

Carol Anne Freeling was certainly right when she said, “They’re hee-ur,” well maybe not enraged spirits, but there are certainly plenty of entities present to which we have paid insufficient attention. Maybe Regan MacNeil was closer to the mark in proclaiming “We are legion.”

description

When Orson Welles said “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone,” he was mistaken. Even when we are alone, we are never alone. We exist in symbiosis—a wonderful term that refers to different

...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Always Pouting rated it really liked it

I feel like this book really exemplifies what I want from a science book written for a mass audience. It made everything really accessible and easy to understand without sacrificing on providing details or explanations. It provides a lot of citations so I can go look up the specific research papers and experiments mentioned that are of most interest to me, which I did. It also just connected research to larger ideas and theories for why things work the way they do. I think the whole point of ...more

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Feb 03, 2019 carol. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: people interested in biology, medicine, life

Recommended to carol. by: Anna

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites, friend-recommended, science, medical, my-library-hardcover

Note: Kindle version on sale in US 2/3/19

For my entire hospital career I have worked in oncology, where I have been part of teams taking care of people with cancer. Frequently patients have “neutropenic fevers,” a condition considered to be potentially harmful and almost always requiring admission to the hospital. Neutrophils are those brave little white blood cells that go out into our bodies and do battle with all the nasty things our bodies are exposed to every day. Neutropenia means the Note: Kindle version on sale in US 2/3/19

For my entire hospital career I have worked in oncology, where I have been part of teams taking care of people with cancer. Frequently patients have “neutropenic fevers,” a condition considered to be potentially harmful and almost always requiring admission to the hospital. Neutrophils are those brave little white blood cells that go out into our bodies and do battle with all the nasty things our bodies are exposed to every day. Neutropenia means the patient has none of those cells to speak of (and this is why herd immunity and vaccines are important).

We culture blood and urine, scan lungs, treat with antibiotics, and monitor for a few days to see if any microbes grow out in cultures. We teach people to fastidiously handwash, and avoid people who are sick. We make them wear masks in the hallways, in order to filter out airborne viruses. Their rooms have special filtration systems. We encourage them to make safe food choices, avoiding foods that can’t be washed or scrubbed clean, or might be undercooked. And you want to know the kicker? If these patients are infected, it’s usually because of microbes in their own body have run amok and caused infection.

You know what else is in the hospital? Microbes. Tons of antibiotic-resistant microbes, hanging out in patient bodies and everywhere else. Once someone is cultured positive for these microbes, they stay on “isolation” for the duration of the visit--and sometimes for life in the case of microbes resistant to all antibiotics--in the (vain) hopes that staff, visitors and patients won’t go moving those resistant microbes around the hospital. A shift where I don’t where a yellow isolation gown to go into these rooms is pretty unusual.

Yong made my little grey cells stretch and reach, and now I have yet more ways to think about microbes, and I dearly wish he would re-write this book–maybe in magazine form–every couple years so I can keep up with all the interesting research. Like David Quammen, Yong doesn’t just stick to one branch of research science; he wanders around many fields as he explores the impact microbes have made on us. He’ll first have you thinking about their sheer evolutionary weight (literally and figuratively), reminding us that we evolved in context of a microbe landscape, not the other way round (and some thought apes were a stretch). Like living on a planet where most of the water is saltwater, it makes sense that microbes would impact the evolution of life.

Yong walks the reader through some of the science that show how animals evolved to use microbes (and perhaps vice versa?). Some are evolutionary, some genetic, some macro. There’s a lovely experiment where a glowing squid developed a sequestered area for those microbes–can’t set them free in the body, of course, so you have to create a special compartment.

In other words, I highly recommend this book. It’s quite well researched and documented, with extensive citations. There’s a bibliography and index, for those that want to delve further or pick and choose. As a further note, I’ll say that I always appreciate researchers/writers who express appreciation for those they interview and follow, without being fawning, and Yong does a nice job with that as well. There are parts I really liked, parts I liked less, parts where someone should have trimmed his descriptive writing just a tad, but any book that keeps me thinking about it months later is a five star read.

I’m going to put my detailed book report below page break at my wordpress site ( https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2019/...) with notes heavily on the medical and the ocean science. There’s also some interesting stuff about insects, for those who might lean that way, and trees. ...more

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Apr 10, 2018 Science (Fiction) Nerd Mario rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 0-biology

Inner values get, in this context, wholly new, trillion of dimensions.

Like so many prejudices, those against microorganisms are stupid and shortsighted. The first associations are not symbiosis and better health but infection and disease because the negative image is over-represented. Hygiene and health are essential, but the benefits of invisible companions are far too rarely highlighted and the beneficial minis outweigh the pests by far. Moreover, understanding the mechanisms is necessary for Inner values get, in this context, wholly new, trillion of dimensions.

Like so many prejudices, those against microorganisms are stupid and shortsighted. The first associations are not symbiosis and better health but infection and disease because the negative image is over-represented. Hygiene and health are essential, but the benefits of invisible companions are far too rarely highlighted and the beneficial minis outweigh the pests by far. Moreover, understanding the mechanisms is necessary for good health, built on a microorganism friendly diet.

Without a symbiosis with a few pounds of microorganisms that are spread over and through the whole body, human life would not be possible, metabolic processes would stop death would be inevitable. A co-evolution has made all higher living beings dependent on the colonizers because they defend humans against enemy invaders which could harm their host. Of course, they also assist with bodily functions because they bring benefits to them so that the motivation for the defense help is not purely altruistic. They form a second front against attackers and it are often the human eaters themselves who are to blame when they wreck their microflora and lose the second shield because of permanently unhealthy nom nom.

The coevolution of higher life with invisible helpers is long and has usually developed into a symbiosis. Much has happened since the first bacterium settled in a higher being while it was itself being altered by a virus etc.

The ever more severe human intervention in this cycle has led to problems within less than 75 years. Since the advent of antibiotics and serial mass production of drugs, allergies, food sensitivities, autoimmune diseases, multidrug-resistant germs, lifestyle diseases, etc. are on the rise. How much of this is related to the destruction of the natural balance in the body, can be difficult to estimate due to a lack of studies. A one-sided diet with an excessive intake of antibiotics in addition to various other drugs is an essential factor that turns the symbiosis into a dysbiosis.

Many drugs include, as a side effect, a mass extinction combined with a collapse of the miniaturized social order, civil wars and a lengthy reconstruction of it. With medicine and hygiene, much money can be made and as a result, super-pathogens grow in hospitals, while chemical gangs in the body of the patients decimate the defense forces of the body.
Therapies with alternative and gentler drugs would be a new competitive and biological disinfectant and more expensive than artificial chemicals in the short term without including long-time costs. The patients pay for this with their health and sometimes life.

The potential market with tailor-made probiotics and the manipulation and improvement of microfauna with genetically modified organisms is a future-oriented industry. As soon as enough bucks are made with conventional medicine, the Big Players will enter it. Until then it will be vilified and kept down.

Actually the effort, according to the standards of medical economics, would not be responsible. Individualized medicine would have to first check the patients for potential vulnerabilities in their microbiome and then create a tailored therapy for them. A great alternative for rich people, but all others continue to receive the standard procedure of conventional treatment that kills friend and foe alike.

If one eats microbe-hostile, one gets problems because a healthy, natural and balanced diet ensures a stable and robust micro-environment. Industrially highly processed and unhealthy food kills many of the little helpers and in their places settle less species-rich constellations, sometimes almost monocultures of dodgy creaturs. These not only damage health in addition to the unhealthy diet but also ensure that the desire for excessive and destructive gluttony with junk food never breaks off in the brain. Their interest in a steady supply is justified. A dietary change to fresh, low-fat, salt-reduced and sugar-free diets could significantly reduce their intake. Everyone has to make a choice themselves. Fit and peaceful armies that have lived and protected us for eons or, alternatively, mercenary junkie armies with dubious loyalty, prone to excesses and arson. One willingly lets them move around in the heartland until one loses control over them or they desert and begin dismantling oneself from within. Many times, a supposed protective power has in retrospect proved to be the worst enemy.

The brain partakes at every meal and accordingly, the performance can be expanded or reduced. Not only the body feels sluggish after too much food, but the gray cells are overwhelmed too. It is not so much the energy used in digestion or the inertia that sets in with permanent overeating. Much more the fuel of the brain is of poor quality. In the car or an expensive machine, one would not pour substandard gasoline or cheap oil. This mentality does not apply to one's own body. From one-sided nutrition with inferior food of low quality less valuable substances can be extracted, which would be necessary for optimal brain function. One eats oneself dumb.

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiota ...more

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Jan 08, 2017 Jamie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 2017, pathology-medical

Well, I will never think of bacteria and archaea the same. I certainly have a newfound understanding of just how vital it is to every part of life. That microbes and bacteria have helped shape our planet for billions of years, down to every single flora and fauna; even all the oxygen we breath has come from bacteria.
I also never really thought about the microbes that are constantly around us and even on me, or how many you are "seeding" to the world. That"every person aerosolises 37 million ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science, biology, audiobook

This is a fascinating book about the microbes inside all of us, and inside other animals as well. Now, it is often said that there are ten times as many bacteria in our bodies as there are cells. This, it turns out, is probably an over-estimate; the number of bacteria is probably in the same ballpark as the number of cells. But still, that is a lot!

This book goes into detail about the amazing partnerships--the symbioses--between microbes and large organisms, mostly animals and humans. Microbes ...more

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Jul 18, 2019 ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪SomeBunny Reads (Phoenix)•*¨*•♫♪ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-favorites, audiobooks

I am Legion.

So, apparently human beings (and all beings in general) are just bags of bacteria and other microorganisms, and these fascinating fellas have always dominated the Earth, from the birth of life to present days: there are more bacteria in our guts than starts in our galaxy. Interesting, uh? I would say a wonderful topic for a wonderful book!

I loved this book and found it extremely interesting for many reasons. First, because it was very well-written, and second because it opened my ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Barbara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Though we might lather our skin with antibacterial soap, clean our hands with alcohol sanitizers, gargle with mouthwash, scrub our kitchen surfaces, disinfect our bathrooms, spray Lysol all over the house, take antibiotics, etc., there are - and always will be - microbes everywhere. This is especially true of our warm moist bodies - which are covered inside and out with microorganisms....and this is a good thing.

Bacteria are on and in our bodies

In fact our bodies are really an indivisible ...more

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Aug 19, 2016 Clif Hostetler rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

Recently I've been hearing reports of miracle cures of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by use of fecal matter transplants. Also I've heard that some autoimmune diseases may be caused by environments that are too clean.

Upon hearing these things the question that comes to my mind is, why this new found enthusiasm for microorganisms? We've known about bacteria since Louis Pasteur. So why all this new information about microbes as if it was something new? (Actually we learn in this book that Antonie ...more

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Aug 30, 2017 Chrissie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fauna, medical, flora, science, deals, audible-uk, 2017-read, 2-itunes-library

I liked this book so I am giving it three stars.

It is common knowledge today that everything and all of us are covered with microbes - that some are good and some are bad. Their number can be debated. We have in the past been fixated on getting rid of them. This has been to our detriment. It is clear we have gone too far. Antibiotics are good and necessary, but at the same time they must be used with care. In heedlessly wiping out microbes, we have created an environment where pathogens I liked this book so I am giving it three stars.

It is common knowledge today that everything and all of us are covered with microbes - that some are good and some are bad. Their number can be debated. We have in the past been fixated on getting rid of them. This has been to our detriment. It is clear we have gone too far. Antibiotics are good and necessary, but at the same time they must be used with care. In heedlessly wiping out microbes, we have created an environment where pathogens proliferate. This book is about the symbiosis we have with the microbes living on and in our bodies and in our environment. It is about our need to develop a harmonious relationship between us and them.

The book begins with a rather long introduction. I wanted the book to get going; what we were being told was all too general.

The introduction is followed by a chapter which focuses on the history of bacteriology, beginning with the Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's (1632 - 1723) development of the microscope. He was the first to observe and describe single celled organisms. The growth of microbiology is reviewed through a discussion of the discoveries of scientists such as Louis Pasteur, Élie Metchnikoff, Theodor Rosebury, René Dubos and others. Microbiologists one has heard of and others less well-known.

After the historical review, the remainder of the book contains fascinating information on more contemporary studies, but there is no real structure to the presentation. First of all, the titles of the chapters do not clearly indicate what the chapter will be about. Here are four titles so you can see what I mean:
-The Long Waltz
-Mutually Assured Success
-Allegro in E Major
-Microbes à la Carte
On completion of a chapter I had learned a smattering of information, all of which I had found interesting, but what exactly that particular chapter was focused upon most often eluded me. Topics brought up in one chapter come up again in another. For me, when reading a non-fiction book on a topic where my own knowledge is weak, I need structure.

There is a heavy use of acronyms and scientific abbreviations, which are explained once, but most often just once. The same is true of the scientific terms used for particular experimental procedures, chemical compounds and pathogens. You can read this book without in-depth previous knowledge, but the more you know before you pick it up the easier it will be to understand. It definitely helped me to have recently read The Gene: An Intimate History. Today scientists are sequencing the genes of the microbes around us. Bacteria readily swap genes, something which humans do not do, but our cells can integrate foreign genetic material from bacteria.

It is important to stress that we are today only beginning to understand the symbiotic relationship between our cells and the microbes living in, on and around us. This book does not give definitive answers but indicates where the future may take us. Numerous studies are cited. Here follow examples of topics discussed - fecal transplants, probiotics, studies on the bacteria feeding sugars in breast milk, the beneficial qualities of vaginal microbes for babies’ health and gut microbes in preventing obesity and autoimmune diseases, the value of dogs in increasing the microbe diversity in our homes, the decimation of coral reefs, squid with luminous bacteria. The topics are many and not only about humans, but other flora and fauna too.

The book provides a lot of really interesting information, but I wanted a better structure to it all.

The audiobook is very well narrated by Charlie Anson. Clear and easy to follow. The narration I have given four stars. ...more

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Oct 23, 2018 Alex marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Everybody likes this book about gutbunnies, which is a term I just now made up for the tiny little things that live in you.

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Mar 16, 2019 Ashlie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

Thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all the information in this book. Might change how you look at yourself, think of yourself and the world around you.

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Sep 18, 2019 Max rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biology

Yong explores the microbiome, not just in humans but in many creatures. He reveals the amazing variety of ways that microorganisms influence their multicellular counterparts. A properly balanced microbiome is not only critical to health, but can be essential to proper development, reproduction and survival. In essence we are one system with the many trillions of foreign organisms in our bodies. We rely on each other. Not that there is a clear cut line between beneficial and pathogenic, a single Yong explores the microbiome, not just in humans but in many creatures. He reveals the amazing variety of ways that microorganisms influence their multicellular counterparts. A properly balanced microbiome is not only critical to health, but can be essential to proper development, reproduction and survival. In essence we are one system with the many trillions of foreign organisms in our bodies. We rely on each other. Not that there is a clear cut line between beneficial and pathogenic, a single organism can be both depending on the circumstances. As Yong notes, the immune system is not just a defense against disease causing organisms, it is a manager of our microbiome, ideally operating to maximize its benefits and minimize its dangers.

Yong offers numerous examples of the codependence of microbes and animals including humans. One example we can easily relate to concerns a mother’s milk. In human milk there are sugars called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), over 200 different ones, yet infants are not able to digest them. However, there is a bacteria that eats it all up, Bifidobacterium longum infantis. In return it feeds short-chain fatty acids to the gut cells. B. infantis also helps these cells generate an adhesive to fill gaps between them and it promotes the cells’ manufacture of anti-inflammatory compounds. Not only that, B. infantis helps infant brains grow by producing the sialic acid they need. And there is more. B. infantis attracts some pathogens acting as a decoy preventing them from invading gut cells. This microbe earns its keep.

We are familiar with the term symbiosis which applies to the relationship between the microbiome and humans. Endosymbiosis is a more exact description of that relationship since the microbes live in and on us. Yong uses the term dysbiosis to describe when that relationship goes awry, when there is a loss of balance between the microbiome and the immune system. Such an imbalance can contribute to illness and conditions such as nutritional deficiency, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome, and many, many more. Unfortunately pinning down the exact constituents of the microbiome responsible is very difficult. Typically there is not one bad actor, but varying mixes of microbes that cause trouble and then only in people with particular genetics or circumstances. Think of your body as an ecosystem. One piece may go astray, but real trouble doesn’t show up until many pieces have been affected, making it exceedingly problematic to understand how the imbalance begins.

Biologist Lynn Margulis, persevering in the face of intense criticism, became famous for making the evolutionary role of endosymbiosis credible. Today it is a widely accepted explanation for the mitochondria in our cells which came from a captured bacterium. She also came up with the word holobiant to describe a community of species that stay together throughout their lives including us and our microbiome. This concept can also be applied to genes. Biologists such as Richard Dawkins consider animals and other life forms to be vehicles for genes. Evolution operates to select genes. Their vehicles can change as needed. The genes in our microbiome directly influence our well-being and behavior. Shouldn’t they be considered a part of the set of genes being selected for in our evolution? In other words, the genes of the holobiant together determine the evolutionary vehicle. Consider the example Yong offers of two “species” of closely related flies. They were thought to be separate species. They never mated and they contained different microbiomes. But give them antibiotics and they will successfully mate. Microbes can change an animal’s smell and other factors that can determine mating preference. Eventually these two fly communities with different microbiomes will become distinct species if they never mate. Just as with these flies, it is our hologenome that may be deciding our future.

Yong explores the therapeutic potential of changing our microbiome. We make a stab at this today with prebiotics, probiotics and fecal transplants. But to reliably tackle most conditions will require cocktails of bacteria properly proportioned to individual needs. These would require testing for efficacy and safety as would any medicine. We also need to think carefully about how antibiotics and antimicrobials affect the microbiome and the bacteria we encounter. As we begin the age of gene therapy, we can consider not only manipulating the bacteria in our microbiomes but their genes as well. Microbes can be much more easily engineered with genes than can animal cells. Bacteria exchange genes through horizontal transfer. They don’t have to inherit them but can readily pick them up from their neighbors. Thus genes from transient bacteria can get into your microbiome. Astounding, however, is the increasing evidence of bacterial gene horizontal transfer into animal cells. This is particularly true of insects which often have very intimate relationships with bacteria. How this happens needs to be explored.

Throughout the book Yong relates example after example of the codependence of animals and bacteria. Bacteria can shape organ development, not only determine sex but change sex after it is established, stop or enable reproduction, stop or enable parasites, provide or block essential nutrients, eradicate or promote a species, decimate or protect a crop, alter the environment and much, much more. Yong makes the case that we need to consider our relationship with bacteria particularly our hologenome if we are to understand our health, our behavior and our future. We are at the beginning of a new appreciation of the role bacteria play in the world, what it means to be human, and new approaches to tackle disease as well as shape our minds and bodies.
...more

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May 08, 2018 Emily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-favorites, favorites

A NEW NONFICTION FAVORITE!!! I'M SO HAPPY.

This is absolutely fabulous scientific nonfiction. I think at times, scienctific nonfiction swings one of two ways--over simplified, or overly pendantic. This book truly hit the sweet spot. It's accessible, gorgeously written, and incredibly informative and well-researched.

In particular, I liked that Yong doesn't shy away from differing schools of thought. Microbiology as we know it today is still a relatively new science, and as such there are a LOT of ...more

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Aug 15, 2016 Joshua Buhs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, belly, non-fiction, ecology

A fascinating topic poorly served by the conventions of popular science writing.

Ed Yong's book is about microbes--bacteria, mostly, but also viruses and few other extremely small creatures--and how they live with other organisms--humans for the most part, with plenty of other animals, too, though no plants.

It has Darwinian ambitions, announced in its subtitle: "A Grander View of Life" evokes Darwin's famous phrase closing the first edition of "On the Origin of Species": "There is grandeur in ...more

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Dec 17, 2018 Diane in Australia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-misc

I did enjoy this book, but it didn't 'wow' me as much as some of the other reviewers. In fact, I started it awhile ago, and just got distracted by other books, and put it down ... which never happens, if I'm enthralled by a book. When I finally came back to it, I did learn a few things, and read a few things aloud to hubby, so, all-in-all I suppose it was a 'good read'.

4 Stars = Outstanding. It definitely held my interest.

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Feb 26, 2017 Paul rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-vipers-monthly-read, royal-society-prize, books-read-2017

You may think that we are just made from muscles, blood cells, bones and a fair bit of DNA, but in between the gaps are microbes. Billions and billions of them. There are the odd rogue ones, but most of them are useful and make up an essential element of our being. Without them we could not live. They help us in countless ways, sculpting our organs, protecting us from disease and feeding and nourishing us; our gut contains a complete ecosystem that ensure that we extract all the energy we need.

You may think that we are just made from muscles, blood cells, bones and a fair bit of DNA, but in between the gaps are microbes. Billions and billions of them. There are the odd rogue ones, but most of them are useful and make up an essential element of our being. Without them we could not live. They help us in countless ways, sculpting our organs, protecting us from disease and feeding and nourishing us; our gut contains a complete ecosystem that ensure that we extract all the energy we need.

Microbes work equal miracles in other animals too, providing the ethereal light that disguises a squid as they hunt, ensuring that koalas are able to digest the unpalatable eucalyptus leaves and the weevil that uses bacteria to make its shell before killing them. The modern worldview of eliminating all microbes is causing as much harm as it is good; people nowdays have a revulsion of all things bacterial, hence the raft of cleaning products that are designed to scour all surfaces and hands clean of these unwanted intruders. However, as Yong successfully argues in this book that not only we might be missing a trick, but our bacterial ecosystem is essential for our survival. A good example of this is in hospitals; the modern view is that all windows have to be locked shut to keep rogue microbes out, but the effect of this is that patients sit in their beds stewing in a lethal mix of micro-organisms. This hazardous situation can be simply solved by opening a window, this allows the dispersal and dilution of the potentially lethal ones. Simple, but very effective.

It is a fascinating account of the unseen creatures that live within and all around us. Yong takes us on this journey through the microscope to discover the most recent research from scientists all round the world and tell us of the secrets that are being discovered about microbes. Some of the treatments being developed have the potential to make people’s so lives much better; one example is RePOOpulate – as unappealing as it sounds! However, this treatment has worked miracles with a 94% success rate and no side effects, a success rate not seen in many other cures. Yong writes with an engaging and eloquent style and makes the science in here really accessible. Well worth reading. 4.5 stars. ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Charlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, origins-of-life, ecology, biology

This book is jam-packed with tons of information about the recently uncovered world of microbes. Considering how many books about microbes are popping up, I was skeptical at first, but it quickly became apparent that this book was based on nothing but the best science available on the subject. Just like the Sonnenburgs' book Gut, I contain Multitudes focused on what we know about microbes and was very clear about the lack of evidence when speculating. The researchers cited by Yong are the best ...more

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Apr 13, 2017 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-tech, reviewed-for-blog, requested-from-publisher, blog-tour, wellcome-prize-shortlist

Ed Yong is a London-based science writer for The Atlantic and is part of National Geographic’s blogging network. I had trouble believing that I Contain Multitudes is his first book; it’s so fluent and engaging that it immediately draws you into the microbial world and keeps you marveling at its strange yet fascinating workings. Yong writes like a journalist rather than a scientist, and that’s a good thing: with an eye to the average reader, he uses a variety of examples and metaphors, Ed Yong is a London-based science writer for The Atlantic and is part of National Geographic’s blogging network. I had trouble believing that I Contain Multitudes is his first book; it’s so fluent and engaging that it immediately draws you into the microbial world and keeps you marveling at its strange yet fascinating workings. Yong writes like a journalist rather than a scientist, and that’s a good thing: with an eye to the average reader, he uses a variety of examples and metaphors, intersperses personal anecdotes of visiting researchers at their labs or in the field, and is careful to recap important facts in a lucid way.

The book opens with a visit to San Diego Zoo (see the exclusive extract following my review), where we meet Baba the pangolin. But “Baba is not just a pangolin. He is also a teeming mass of microbes,” Yong explains. “Some of them live inside him, mostly in his gut. Others live on the surface of his face, belly, paws, claws, and scales.” Believe it or not, but we are roughly half and half human cells and microbial cells, making each of us – like all creatures – more of an ecosystem (another term is “holobiont”) than a single entity.

Microbes vary between species but also within species, so each individual’s microbiome in some ways reflects a unique mixture of genes and experiences. This is why people’s underarms smell subtly different, and how hyenas use their scent glands to convey messages. The microbiome may well be tailored to different creatures’ functions, so researchers at San Diego Zoo are testing swabs from their animals to see if there could be discernible signatures for burrowing or flying activities, or for disease. I was struck by the breadth of species considered here: not just mammals, but also invertebrates like beetles, cicadas, and squid – my entomologist husband would surely be proud. The “Us” in the subtitle is thus used very inclusively to speak of the way that microbes live in symbiosis with all living things.

If I were to boil down Yong’s book to one message, it’s that microbes are not simply “bad” or “good” but have different roles depending on the context and the host. You can hardly dismiss all bacteria as germs that must be eradicated when there are thousands of benign species in your gut (versus fewer than 100 kinds that cause infectious diseases). If it weren’t for the microbes passed on to us at birth, we wouldn’t be able to digest the complex sugars in our mothers’ milk. Other creatures rely on bacteria to help them develop to adulthood, like the tube worms that thrive on Navy ship hulls at Pearl Harbor.

Yet Yong feels too little attention is given to beneficial microbes, and in many cases we continue the campaign to rid ourselves of them through overuse of antibiotics and taking cleanliness to unhelpful extremes. “We have been tilting at microbes for too long, and created a world that’s hostile to the ones we need,” he asserts.

The book is full of lines like that one that combine a nice turn of phrase and a clever literary allusion. In the title alone, after all, you have references to Walt Whitman (“I contain multitudes” is from his “Song of Myself”) and Charles Darwin (“there is grandeur in this view of life” is part of the closing sentence in his On the Origin of Species). Yong also sets up helpful analogies, comparing the immune system to a thermostat and antibiotics to “shock-and-awe weapons … like nuking a city to deal with a rat.”

History and future are also brought together very effectively, with the narrative looking backwards to Leeuwenhoek’s early microscope work and Pasteur and Koch’s germ theory, but also forwards to the prospects that current research into microbes might enable: eliminating elephantiasis, protecting frogs from deadly fungi via probiotics in the soil, fecal microbiota transplants to cure C. diff infections, and so on.

The possibilities seem endless, and this is a book that will keep you shaking your head in amazement. I’d liken Yong’s style to David Quammen’s or Rebecca Skloot’s. His clear and intriguing science writing succeeds in inspiring wonder at the natural world and at the bodies that carry us through it.

I participated in the official Wellcome Book Prize 2017 blog tour. See my blog review at Bookish Beck for an exclusive extract from the book. ...more

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Mar 06, 2017 Forrest rated it really liked it · review of another edition

You are what you eat.
You eat what you are.
What you aren't eats you and other things that aren't you, but are in you.
I am legion.

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Sep 17, 2017 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science, illuminating, twisted-my-synapses-peculiar, academic-notations

This is a fun read!

Each one of us is a microbiome, with billions of bacteria literally on every bit of our skin and hair. Inside our bodies and in our cells, we have even more interesting little microscopic monsters. Plus, we share these little bugs with everyone we meet, especially the people we live with. If you have a dog, the volume of bacteria in your home increases exponentially.

If, gentle reader, you are now scratching and twitching, may I suggest getting a copy of 'I Contain Multitudes' ...more

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Jan 28, 2018 Allie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, medical

Utterly fascinating. Review to come, once I pick up the pieces of my brain and assemble some coherent thoughts.

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Jul 01, 2019 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, previous-decade-2010-s, non-fiction, science, healthcare

When Orson Welles said "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone", he was mistaken. Even when we are alone, we are never alone. We exist in symbiosis--a wonderful term that refers to different organisms living together. Some animals are colonized by microbes while they are still unfertilized eggs; others pick up their first partners at the moment of birth. We then proceed through our lives in their presence. When we eat, so do they. When we travel, they come along. When we die, they ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Amir Tesla rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: health

Such a mind-blowing book.

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Dec 13, 2016 Dov Zeller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sciency-naturish, non-fiction, illness, health-related, food, want-to-reread, ecosystems, microbes-and-us

“Forget Orson Welles, and heed Walt Whitman: “I am large, I contain multitudes.”

“'Each animal is an ecosystem with legs,' says John Rawls."

“As palaeontologist Andrew Knoll once said, 'Animals might be evolution's icing, but bacteria are really the cake.'"

Yep, Ed Yong knows how to salt and pepper his writing with some good quotes.

He also pens some wonderful great-for-quoting prose himself:

"It's estimated that every human contains 100 trillion microbes, most of which live in our guts. By ...more

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Jul 03, 2017 Wanda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, public-library, read-in-2017

First of all, kudos for an excellent title, referencing the poetry of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. It is not the only literary reference and I truly appreciate that in a science writer.

Yong gives the feeling of being on a safari, observing exotic wildlife. He makes single-celled organisms as interesting as wildebeest and lions. We have come a long way in understanding this part of the ecosystem, and we have miles to go before we perfect that knowledge.

The microorganisms were here first. All of ...more

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Nov 13, 2017 Olive rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

See my review on booktube: https://youtu.be/7A6jT35WEEQ

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Aug 19, 2018 Ana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, 2016-releases, read-in-2018

Read Harder Challenge 2018
#6. A book about nature

... and loads of accessible sciencey stuff, with an “I am legion” vibe, I might add. This is a fun read!

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Sep 06, 2016 Isil Arican rated it liked it · review of another edition

I love Ed Yong's articles and I wanted to read this book since I heard it was coming out.
Microbiom is a fascinating subject and he does a good job of giving background information, explaining the background work and giving interesting examples. So overall I enjoyed reading it.

The reason for only three stars: the books structure is not great. He talks about an issue and revisits it again and again. It is lacking the flow, and feels like he is visiting the same points over and over again. I assume ...more

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Mar 05, 2019 Tracy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-science, environmental, library-books, borrowed, evolutionary-biology, microbiology-is-fun

This was so much fun to read and provides so much food for thought. As I sit here, I am aerosolizing 37 million bacteria per hour. The population of Canada is (marginally) less than that. I can’t help but picture Pigpen from Charlie Brown walking around with his cloud of dirt. I also think what a great pity it is that the hospital I work in was designed with windows that are sealed shut, locking all of those pathogenic bacteria that we want to avoid inside with our patients. Think about that the ...more

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About Ed Yong

Ed Yong

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Ed Yong is a science journalist who reports for The Atlantic, and is based in Washington DC.

His work appears several times a week on The Atlantic's website, and has also featured in National Geographic, the New Yorker, Wired, Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American, and many more. He has won a variety of awards, including the Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award for biomedical reporting in ...more

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