Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life
A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and...
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A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels between E. coli's life and our own. And he describes how E. coli changes in real time, revealing billions of years of history encoded within its genome. E. coli is also the most engineered species on Earth, and as scientists retool this microbe to produce life-saving drugs and clean fuel, they are discovering just how far the definition of life can be stretched.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780307276865 (0307276864)
ASIN: 307276864
Publish date: July 14th 2009
Publisher: Vintage
Pages no: 256
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
History,
Literature,
Science,
Popular Science,
20th Century,
Biology,
Medical,
Modern,
Evolution,
Genetics
Microcosm is a history of E. coli but more than that, it’s a history of modern biology. So much of what we do in the lab today depends on these little bacteria that looking at biology through the lens of E. coli lends itself well to discussing almost all of modern microbiology. It also includes a fe...
Referenced in an article by Zimmer in BBC Knowledge magazine about Richard's Lenski's work with E.coli bacteria. He set up 12 identical lines in separate flasks 21 years ago and then watched them evolve. Some really interesting stuff happened including one line's ability to use citrate for sustenan...
Zimmer writes clearly and well. I've been reading his blog for some time and was glad to pick this up when it came out. It's a huge subject, and Zimmer does a fine job of giving enough information about many facets of the science happening around E. coli without swamping one in data. He's engaging a...
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