What an eye opening read! A dizzying perspective shift. This book by Ed Yong explores the world of microbes and the microbiome which turn out to be the things that define life – the world that every living thing and beyond is embedded in. The author shows how microbes and their interactions with each other are extraordinarily complex and how they shape and drive life and even evolution. The book starts off from the history and development of our understanding of microbes and goes on to describe just how big a role they play in our being, other animals and the environment.
One fascinating thing is how we don’t just contain multitudes but we release about 37 million microbes per hour! So our own biomes extend beyond the confines of our bodies and define the microbiome around us. That’s insane and great.
This book has changed me and my view of reality forever.
