From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

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

Ed Yong

Start date: August 1, 2017

Finish date: August 31, 2017

Discussion: Book Club 2017

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Book Club 2017

May 2017 - Hidden Life of Trees
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last updated Nov 17, 2022 06:26AM

April 2017 - Reality is Not What It Seems
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Jun 11, 2020 Petra X added it

Shelves: 1-awaiting-review-but-read

Update: Antibiotics and obesity. It is routine in the US (although banned in the UK and Canada) to give cows, pigs, chickens etc low doses of antibiotics in order to fatten them up. No one knows why the antibiotics make them gain weight on the same amount of food, but they do. There is no reason to suppose that we are any different. The mechanism has to do with altering the biome, the microbes in the body, but how long the effect lasts isn't known, it might be a lifetime thing.

Antibiotics and re Update: Antibiotics and obesity. It is routine in the US (although banned in the UK and Canada) to give cows, pigs, chickens etc low doses of antibiotics in order to fatten them up. No one knows why the antibiotics make them gain weight on the same amount of food, but they do. There is no reason to suppose that we are any different. The mechanism has to do with altering the biome, the microbes in the body, but how long the effect lasts isn't known, it might be a lifetime thing.

Antibiotics and resistance. We are told that we are overprescribed antibiotics and that is causing resistance, but the amount of antibiotics any individual gets is absolutely minor compared to the amount that we consume. Not only consume from meat, but since animal droppings are used for fertilizer, perhaps from our bread and vegetables and water too.

It reminds me of recycling and the emphasis on all of us individuals doing it. However, 98% of all waste is industrial, retail and from restaurants. Go to many supermarkets and they charge you for a plastic bag (if they even have them), go to a 'green' supermarket like Whole Foods and they give a paper one. Then look at the produce, it's packed in plastic, the meat is in styrofoam, the deli salads in plastic, the knife and fork you got to eat them with are plastic, the coffe cup (recyclable!) has a plastic lid, the bottle of juice is probably plastic but the straw is paper.

Plastic is cheap and convenient, clean, easy to store and keeps things fresh. Why change if you can make people feel they are the problem and that you are helping them to do the right thing? It's just clever marketing. They are the 98% of the problem and until they address the issues of pollution and climate change in their own industries and stores, no matter how hard we try, we will only make ... 2% of a difference.
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Schizophrenia used to be blamed on cold mothers, autism likewise, it was the mother's fault. We've moved on now to proving it is the mother getting flu or measles (why didn't she get vaccinated, oh how could she do this and risk inflicting her child.... dadadada. Oh no she couldnt' get vaccinated because that causes.... dadadada).

"Patterson had read that pregnant women who incur serious infections, like flu or measles, are more likely to have kids with autism and schizophrenia. He thought that a mother's immune responses might somehow affect the development of her baby's brain. He just didn't know how.".......... "And they realised that Patterson's mice had gut problems in common with actual autistic children: both were likely to have diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal disorders, and both harboured unusual comunities of gut bicrobes. Perhaps, the duo reasoned, fixing those gut problems might also lead to changes in behaviour."

And so it goes on, these male scientists keen to prove that these links to lab mice proved the mother caused autism in her babies. Until, science writer, a woman, Emily Willingham points out that,

"Mice don't have autism, which is a human neurobiological construct shaped in part by social and cultural perceptions of what is considered normal. Is a mouse repeatedly burying a marble really like a child rocking back and forth? Is a lower frequency of squeaks the same as being unable to talk to other people? If you squint just so, the similarities jump out . Look again and and you might see parallels with other conditions.

Then the killer - the lab mice used were originally bred to model schizophrenia. So you have scientists saying that the bacteria in the guts of autistic babies and schizophrenic mice who cannot possibly be bred in any way to be autistic proves that it is the mother is responsible, it's just more time is needed to find the proof, the microbes responsible.

It's scientific confirmation bias. It's akin to a scientific conspiracy theory. One way or another the mother must be blamed. And say, as the woman science writer says, that all these gut problems can be seen as not just similarities but absolute parallels to other conditions, not autism . ...more

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Jun 18, 2017 Charlene rated it it was amazing

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

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 i ...more

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Jan 09, 2018 Holli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: listened-to-it

4.5
Fascinating!

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Oct 06, 2016 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Really fantastic overview of the microbes that share the world with us (dominate is actually more like it!). I have been interested in the antibiotic promise of phages but this book recalled piqued my interest in improving infection control by enlisting the use of microbes instead of eliminating everything microbial. I also appreciated the idea that toilets that are scrubbed less are populated with fewer fecal germs

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Nov 29, 2016 Clay rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Recommended to me by a friend, this book magnifies the captivating world of microbes. It leads you through huge paradigm shifts over the years in regards to the microbial world and the riveting direction that research is taking. If pop-science books are your jam or if you are interested in the pro-biotic and fecal-transplant rhetoric in the world today, consider reading this work by Ed Young.

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