Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria

by Anne Maczulak

Overview

Bacteria are invisible, mysterious, deadly, self-sufficient…and absolutely essential for all life, including yours. No other living things combine their elegant simplicity with their incredibly complex role: Bacteria keep us alive, supply our food, and regulate our biosphere. We can’t live a day without them, and no chemical, antibiotic, or irradiation has ever successfully eradicated them. They’re our partners, like it or not--even though some of them will happily kill us.

Allies and Enemies tells the story of this amazing, intimate partnership. Authored by Anne Maczulak, a microbiologist who’s hunted and worked with an extraordinary array of bacteria, this book offers a powerful new perspective on Earth’s oldest creatures. You’ll discover how bacteria work, how they evolve, their surprising contributions and uses, the roles they’ve played in human history, and why you can't survive without them. No form of life is more important, and in Maczulak’s hands, none is more fascinating.

 

Outlasted, outnumbered, outsmarted

They’ve been here four billion years--and they even outnumber you in your own body

 

How bacteria keep you alive…

…and how to keep them from killing you

 

“Humans Defeat Germs!”

But not for long…

 

The Invisible Universe

The stunning hidden relationships between bacteria and the rest of nature

 

Customer Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780132119306
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	07/08/2010
Series:	FT Press Science
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Anne Maczulak grew up in Watchung, New Jersey, with a plan to become either a writer or a biologist. She completed undergraduate and master’s studies in animal nutrition at The Ohio State University, her doctorate nutrition and microbiology from the University of Kentucky, and conducted postdoctoral studies at the New York State Department of Health. She also holds an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

 

Anne began her training as a microbiologist studying the bacteria and protozoa of human and animal digestive tracts. She is one of a relatively small group of microbiologists who were trained in the Hungate method of culturing anaerobic microbes, meaning microbes that cannot live if exposed to oxygen. In industry, Anne worked in microbiology laboratories at Fortune 500 companies, developing anti-dandruff shampoos, deodorants, water purifiers, drain openers, septic tank cleaners, and disinfectants--all products that relate to the world of microbes. She conducted research in the University of California-San Francisco’s dermatology group, testing wound-healing medications, antimicrobial soaps, and foot fungus treatments.

 

In graduate school, other students and a few professors had seemed nonplussed when Anne filled her elective schedule with literature courses. Anne was equally surprised to learn that so many of her peers in science found pursuit of the arts to be folly. In 1992, with more than a decade of “growing bugs” on her resume, she packed up and drove from the east coast to California to begin a new career as a writer while keeping microbiology her day job. And yes, it was possible to be both a writer and a scientist.

 

While toiling evenings on a mystery novel set in a microbiology lab, Anne continued working on various laboratory projects intended either to utilize good microbes or eliminate deadly ones. A decade later, Anne began her career as an independent consultant and has successfully blended writing with biology. Although the mystery novel never made it off the ground, Anne has since published ten books on microbes and environmental science. She focuses on making highly technical subjects easy to understand. From her unique perspective, Anne inspires her audiences into wanting to know more about microbes, and perhaps even like them.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     viii

About the Author     ix

Introduction     1

 

Chapter 1   Why the world needs bacteria     7

Tricks in bacterial survival     9

Bacterial communities     13

Under the microscope     16

The size of life     20

The bacteria of the human body     25

The origins of our bacteria    29

One planet     32

 

Chapter 2   Bacteria in history     35

The ancients    37

The legacy of bacterial pathogens     39

The plague    42

Microbiologists save the day     46

Unheralded heroes of bacteriology     50

On the front    58

 

Chapter 3   “Humans defeat germs!”(but not for long)     63

What is an antibiotic?     64

Inventing drugs is like making sausage    68

Mutant wars     73

Bacteria share their DNA    77

The opportunists     78

 

Chapter 4   Bacteria in popular culture     83

Bacteria and art 83   

Bacteria in the performing arts    84

Friends and enemies     89

Do bacteria devour art?     91

 

Chapter 5   An entire industry from a single cell     99

E. coli     103

The power of cloning     106

A chain reaction     109

Bacteria on the street    112

Anthrax     116

Why we will always need bacteria     117

 

Chapter 6   The invisible universe     121

Versatility begets diversity     124

Cyanobacteria     128

Bacterial protein factories     131

How to build an ecosystem     135

Feedback and ecosystem maintenance     138

Macrobiology     141

 

Chapter 7   Climate, bacteria, and a barrel of oil     145

The story of oil     147

Bacteria power     149

How is a cow like a cockroach?     150

Microscopic power plants     154

The waste problem     155

Bacteria on Mars     160

Shaping the planet     162

 

Epilogue   How microbiologists grow bacteria     165

Serial dilution    165

Counting bacteria     167

Logarithms     168

Anaerobic microbiology     169

Aseptic technique     170

 

Appendix   Resources for learning more about bacteria     173

Internet resources on bacteria     173

Book resources on bacteria     173

Classic reading on bacteria     174

 

Bacteria rule references     175

Index     197

Editorial Reviews

"Not surprisingly, people frequently view "germs" as enemies of humankind because media coverage usually involves an outbreak of disease. Writer and microbiologist Maczulak attempts to refute this perception by explaining how microbes such as bacteria are not only important for industry but also essential for human survival.The extensive bibliography encompasses Internet resources and classical readings as well as some professional references on the subject." Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general readers. -- R. Adler, University of Michigan, Dearborn. Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.

From the Publisher