Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues

by Martin J. Blaser

Microbes make their homes everywhere we look. The ocean is home to unimaginable numbers of them, though some estimates give a flavor to their ubiquity. At

least 20 million types of marine microbes (possibly a billion) make up 50–90 percent of the ocean’s biomass. The number of microbial cells in the water column, meaning sea surface to sea floor, is more than 10 to the 30th, a nonillion, or 1,000 × 1 billion × 1 billion × 1 billion. This is equal to the weight of 240 billion African elephants.