We discover new things almost every day. While I found some of the science to be inaccessible and some examples unnecessary, I thought that the book clearly and excellently communicated the abundance and importance of microbes. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best.” — Bill Gates “[An] excellent and vivid introduction to our microbiota. We have an inner life, in every sense, and are the richer for it: richer still for this witty and compelling book. By Ed Yong. Wendy Moore, Literary Review [A] densely fascinating and elegant book… Yong’s book is vividly enjoyable. She noted that some scientists and science enthusiasts would write to her to let her know she was wrong about something she’d done intentionally for the sake of audience. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Ed Yong, 2016 HarperCollins 368 pp. • To order I Contain Multitudes for £16.40 (Bodley Head, RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. They are invisible, insidious and exist in overwhelming numbers. And although microbial life extends kilometres below the ocean basalt, rides on the dust and water vapour high in the transatlantic clouds, and makes a living in thermal springs, mine dumps, alkaline lakes and even radioactive waste, Yong’s book addresses only the microbiome, our name for those microbes that live parasitically on, or in symbiosis with, or just manipulate, animals. The I Contain Multitudes book is at once a history book and a science book, charting the course of life on earth from the very beginning, and exploring the science behind our evolving understanding of the microbial world in which we live, delving deep into the manner in which these microbes shape that world, both around, and in us. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The book is full of conversations with scientists and researchers, and it feels like a tour of an emerging field, full of incredible possibilities. The story gets even more subtle when it comes to mother’s milk. I Contain Multitudes is science writing at its best: Ed Yong is curious and energetic, and his enthusiasm for bacteria (and wordplay) runneth over in this wide-ranging look at microbiomes within and without. I tried reading a book about books not too long ago, and it was so steeped in PhD lit theory blah blah blah that I couldn’t follow along. 0; Uncovering countless biological mysteries of jaw dropping complexity, I Contain Multitudes is an endlessly fascinating look at the invisible world that’s all around (and in) us. Microbes can affect our mood, take charge of our immune system, protect us from disease, make us ill, kill us and then decompose us. Their power is enormous, and we are just beginning to realise it, as this thrilling book details, Gut reaction: the surprising power of microbes | Ed Yong. Hah, providing containers for the gazillions of life forms in our guts – I love that! I Contain Multitudes lets us peer into that world for the first time, allowing us to see how ubiquitous and vital microbes are: they sculpt our organs, defend us from disease, break down our food, educate our immune systems, guide our behavior, bombard our genomes with their genes, and grant us incredible abilities. Yong begins by discussing of the sheer ubiquity of microbes, thousands of which exist in the air, food, water, and even on this very magazine page. In I Contain Multitudes, Yong synthesizes literally hundreds and hundreds of papers, but he never overwhelms you with the science.He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. ( Log Out /  Yet, until late in human history, we didn’t know they were there at all. I respect and appreciate that Yong showed the nuance and complexity of scientific research – even though it sometimes came at a cost to my own understanding. We have never been alone. Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Unlike ruminating cattle or the great grazing herds of the Serengeti, Yong says, humans could just about scrape by without their bacterial companions, but it is clear that our lives would be the shorter without them. They manage us in myriad ways: deliver our minerals and vitamins, help digest our lunch, and provide in different ways all our cheese, yoghurt, beer, wine, bread, bacon and beef. How fascinating! It may be that we can thank B. infantis for our large brains, or perhaps the spurt of growth in the first year of human life. infectiously enthusiastic.” — New York Times Book Review “A science journalist’s first book is an excellent, vivid introduction to the all-enveloping realm of our secret sharers.” In July, German microbiologists announced a new antibiotic that kills the hospital superbug MRSA. They are invisible, insidious and exist in overwhelming numbers. New York Times Book Review. This book was a Christmas gift, for which I’m very grateful! ( Log Out /  This is a fascinating topic — from the little I’ve read about it, it almost seems like we’re mostly here to provide containers and carriers for the gazillions of life forms in our guts. It selectively kills the male embryos of blue moon butterflies of Fiji and Samoa, so that females outnumber males by 100 to one. Microbial marvels … collectively they are cleverer than us. Pre-publication book reviews and features keeping readers and industry influencers in the know since 1933. It is a feminist force. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. I CONTAIN MULTITUDES ... beautifully written book that will profoundly shift one’s sense of self to that of symbiotic multitudes. New York Times Book Review. Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 12.38 GMT. Bacteria, in other words, allow us to do decent impressions of bacteria.” (207) Staphylococcus lugdunensis can produce a toxin that can see off MRSA, even if it is outnumbered 10 to one. That’s a great point, and Lab Girl was an amazing book! Bob Dylan: I Contain Multitudes review — the singer’s second ‘lockdown’ single, and this time he turns in on himself. Mr Yong expertly avoids these pitfalls…. --Kirkus, Starred Review We are perambulating tower blocks, each occupied by maybe 40tn tiny tenants. Book Review: I Contain Multitudes, by Ed Yong. I can now recommend it to everyone for a good dose of actual scientific information, given the current state of anti-microbial hysteria. Reading this book will make you view the world differently. With vivid tales and graceful explanations, Ed Yong reveals how the living things we see around us are wildly complex collectives. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. I Contain Multitudes bowls along wonderfully without it. August 09, 2016 Although it might seem rather creepy, we are all teaming with microscopic organisms, collectively known as our microbiome. Human infants, however, can digest none of these. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. So the nursing mother feeds the microbe which then feeds the baby. Complex life has a 500m-year evolutionary history: microbial life is at least 3.5bn years old. Rachel E. Sachs (Academic Fellow Alumna) Journal of Law and the Biosciences June 2017. Friday April 17 2020, 12.00pm, The Times. Unless you are a microbiologist, almost all of it will be new to you. It manipulates their sex lives: it kills male wasps, and the females replicate by cloning themselves. Image courtesy of Ed Yong. Change ), Month in Review: August 2020 – Books and Bakes, Mini-Reviews of Short Reads: The Origin of Others & Dear Ijeawele, Book Review: Love and Other Thought Experiments. I Contain Multitudes is a great book, by a gifted science writer with – if you’ll excuse the expression – an infectious enthusiasm for his subject. These organisms live on our skin, inside our bodies and sometimes inside our cells. I Contain Multitudes is science journalist Ed Yong’s deep dive into the world of microbes. I'm Hannah, a book-blogger from the Northeastern United States. We have never been alone. A bacterium called Tremblaya colonised the citrus mealybug, and then discarded the genetic material it no longer needed as a mealybug freeloader; another bacterium called Moranella colonised Tremblaya. . I CONTAIN MULTITUDES The Microbes Within Us … Yong’s wit, and endearing inability to pass up an opportunity for wordplay, are just a couple of the many bonuses that make it enjoyable, too. Actually, it is in almost everything. While much of the prevailing discussion around the microbiome has focused on its … SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2017THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERYour body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It is reportedly the dominant microbe in the bowels of breast-fed babies, and as it digests the sugars, it releases short-chain fatty acids, which then feed the infant gut cells. This additional level of detail makes “I Contain Multitudes” an ideal springboard for book club or classroom discussion or solitary contemplation. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best.. Yong makes clear that only a tiny fraction of microbes have the ability to make us sick. Book Reviews This compelling and beautifully written book will change the way people look at the world around, and within, them. To a microbiologist, all plants, birds, mammals, insects, molluscs, reptiles, fish and amphibians are just the last few twigs of one tip of the eukaryote branch of the microbial imperium. And it is a page-turner in a very old-fashioned sense. Published by HarperCollins publishers ISBN: 9780062368621. As complex, multicellular lifeforms, we are their sock puppets. You won’t find this particular microbe in Ed Yong’s marvellous, thrilling and richly annotated book, but don’t worry. Author Ed Yong is a science writer for The Atlantic.His writing has also appeared in many other publications, such as The New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times, and Nature. But we can get a little closer to their blinding pace by forming partnerships with them. Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin—a “microbe’s-eye view” of the world that reve I Contain Multitudes is hardly a light read – I closed the book with the feeling that Yong has peered into every microbial niche – but it is an endlessly rewarding one. All life is here, and death too, and sex and violence, including deviations of which you had never dreamed. I Contain Multitudes is popular science writing at its best. Daily Telegraph [Yong is] one of … Our inner demons cannot be cast out, because they did not move in and take possession: they were here before us, and will live on after us. • To order I Contain Multitudes for £16.40 (Bodley Head, RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Hi! At times, the book felt less like a cohesive story about microbes, and more like a collection of examples of microbes that do cool things. REVIEW. Book reviews. By the end of the book his sense of wonder for microbes was, well, infectious.” (Boston Globe)^“For a lesser writer, the temptation to oversimplify the science or to sex up unwarranted conclusions might have proved irresistible. "A science journalist's first book is an excellent, vivid introduction to the all-enveloping realm of our secret sharers." The book: I Contain Multitudes by Ed YongGenre: Science nonfiction Rating: 3 stars out of 5. I Contain Multitudes makes microbes as interesting as one could hope for, but for many readers, I suspect there might simply be a limit to their depth of fascination with this tiny, teeming legion of life. I Contain Multitudes is science journalism at its best.” Review “In I Contain Multitudes, Yong synthesizes literally hundreds and hundreds of papers, but he never overwhelms you with the science. We share our genes with them, we incorporate their DNA. I Contain Multitudes Ed Young Review by Becky Diamond. Something that Yong handled very well was addressing the nuanced nature of scientific research. While the book was successful in conveying the importance of microbes, however, some of the specific studies that Yong cites felt dryly written to me. I Contain Multitudes changes you the way all great science writing does. “In the great evolutionary race, they spring, while we crawl. They exist as just one cell, each vastly smaller than almost any single human cell. While much of the prevailing discussion around the microbiome has focused on its … But if you had trouble with some of the passages in this book, maybe I need the Cliff notes . View all posts by Hannah Celeste. . He just keeps imparting one surprising, fascinating insight after the next. The rest of us spread our variant genes by replicating: change happens with a new generation. Book Review: I Contain Multitudes. I just googled to see a specific example, and I’ve heard of bacteriophages, but I didn’t realize they were viruses. Human breast milk contains lactose, fat and more than 200 complex sugars called oligosaccharides. It also didn’t help that the writer’s style was obtuse. Overall, I enjoyed and learned a lot from I Contain Multitudes. Our inner demons cannot be cast out, because they did not move in and take possession: they were here before us, and will live on after us. From the review by Rachel E. Sachs:. The book is called “I Contain Multitudes”. They have no brain or nervous system, but they exist in monstrous numbers – every hour you sneeze, cough, splutter or just breathe an estimated 37bn into the air around you – and untold variety. Wolbachia is a genus first discovered in 1924, inside a mosquito. Read the Full Article . Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life (2016) When I was asked to contribute a “book I should have read” to Keeping Up with the Penguins, this one sprang to mind.And spurred by that reminder, I did finally read it! Readers Lane reviews of other books about unpopular forms of life: --New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice "An exceptionally informative, beautifully written book that will profoundly shift one's sense of self to that of symbiotic multitudes." Throughout this book, I found myself marveling at the specific things that microbes can be responsible for (like triggering deadly auto-immune responses in organisms across the tree of life), as well as their involvement in virtually every ecological niche on Earth. Like coprophagy and faecal transplant, also discussed in the book at length and with some glee, the notions of “good” and “bad” are deceptive. Book review by Antonio Gomes da Costa, Independent Consultant - Science Communication and Education, Lisbon, Portugal. These things are tiny. While all the microbes that Yong covers are interesting in some way, it’s not clear that every study was strictly necessary for the book. By examining diverse scientific studies under the umbrella of microbiology – from studies of animals that literally do not survive without microbial symbionts, to the (widely accepted) theory that our own Eukaryotic organelles evolved from bacteria – Yong illustrates how microbes are interwoven into every facet of life as we know it. I Contain Multitudes lets us peer into that world for the first time, allowing us to see how ubiquitous and vital microbes are: they sculpt our organs, defend us from disease, break down our food, educate our immune systems, guide our behavior, bombard our genomes with their genes, and grant us incredible abilities. None of the three could survive without the other two. I Contain Multitudes lets us peer into that world for the first time, allowing us to see how ubiquitous and vital microbes are: they sculpt our organs, defend us from disease, break down our food, educate our immune systems, guide our behavior, bombard our genomes with their genes, and grant us incredible abilities. It was produced by a seemingly inconsequential microbe fighting for space in the impoverished habitat that is the human nostril. One single-celled creature called Bifidobacterium longum infantis gobbles up the lot. Luckily, Ed Yong’s new book, I contain multitudes, is a whistle-stop tour of the microbial world for the non-expert. We are possessed. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life is an in-depth introduction to the microbiome and how it interacts with humans and other species. We still do not know who they all are, or what they do. In The New York Times Book Review, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner reviews Ed Yong’s “I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life.” We meet Vibrium fischeri, which occupies the Hawaiian bobtail squid, turning on the luminescence machinery that cancels its shadow and makes it invisible to submarine predators. Philly Voice. The Whitman-inspired title is apt: we drift through a world teeming with bacteria. But the book does not (and should not) just limit itself to the interactions between microbes and humans. No other mammal makes as many oligosaccharides as humans, or in such quantity. You become disoriented, looking at the world around you in a new way. Microbes have been around, and have learned a thing or two. We learn the secret, invisible, and wondrous biology behind the corals that construct mighty … It’s an entire world, a colony full of life. Microbes can swap those handy mutations that deliver advantage in stressful circumstances with their neighbours: change happens on the spot, and this egalitarian, cooperative talent, called horizontal gene transfer, swiftly delivers microbial strains that can learn to resist whatever antibiotics we throw at them. Our microbes just are, and do, and somehow we benefit each other, except when we don’t. I call it marvellous: everything about the microbial world is to be marvelled at. All this helps put the rest of us in our place. I appreciate that Yong steered away from oversimplified or misleading scientific claims, and that he called out mainstream news companies that do oversimplify or sensationalize microbiology research. Even though I do microbiology research, I didn’t know that most animals can’t survive without microbes, or that the human body hosts tons of non-pathogenic viruses, or even that the majority of viruses are non-pathogenic. Gut bacteria in the desert woodrat in the US south-west help the animal eat and dispose of the toxins in the creosote bush that would kill any other mammal. I also like that when Yong presented controversial studies, he addressed the limitations and critiques of those studies. In other words, you contain multitudes.They sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us … Certainly among the best books in an increasingly crowded field and written with a true passion for and understanding of the microbiome. Whether you need an intriguing new non-fiction book for bedtime reading or a book to recommend or use with your classes, “I Contain Multitudes” should be at the top of your list. Our skins are smeared with a thin film of microbial life, with ever greater numbers occupying every orifice and employed in colossal numbers in our guts. I might have struggled less if I’d read a physical copy of the book where I could re-read sentences as needed – audiobook doesn’t seem to lend well to science non-fiction. “I appreciate that Yong steered away from oversimplified or misleading scientific claims, and that he called out mainstream news companies that do oversimplify or sensationalize microbiology research.” — this line here reminded me of an interview I heard on NPR with the author of Lab Girl.
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