colis pivotal role in the history of biology, from the. Most of us might only know E coli for its lethal strain that causes food poisoning, but Zimmer uses E coli as a prism to understand what life is, what it was, and what it will become. coli and the New Science of Life is a 2008 book by science writer Carl Zimmer. Granta Magazine The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. Not only had Lederberg proved that bacteria have sex, he had also proved they have genes.Since then, a bacterium that was once nothing more than a humble resident of the human gut has become our best guide to what it means to be alive. The only possible explanation for their survival was that they were a product of sex. But slowly, a few colonies of survivors began to spread accross the dishes. A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine Granta Magazine The Plain-Deale. His experiments used defective E coli strains lacking the essential molecules to reproduce by cloning which should, by rights, perish in the petri dish. Read 105 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. He chose to observe the breeding habits of a certain bacterium called Escherichia coli, better known as E coli. At the age of seven, he had declared that he hoped to become 'like Einstein' and to 'discover a few things in science.'The 'few things' Lederberg discovered would revolutionise modern science and earn him a Nobel Prize. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels between E. colis 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 pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine Granta Magazine The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. Discover more authors youll love listening to on Audible. Lederberg was motivated not by a displaced libido, but by scientific ambition. A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine Granta Magazine The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. Browse Carl Zimmers best-selling audiobooks and newest titles. coli on EMB plate, was posted to Flickr by YW Lim and used under a by-nc-nd licence.In 1946, a twenty-year-old medical school student called Joshua Lederberg decided to find out whether microbes make love. This book is pretty good, but if you haven’t read anything by Zimmer, I’d suggest you read Parasite Rex first, because that’s one of my favourite science books ever. I think it’s partially that I can’t visualise the action, and partially that there are all these long names for enzymes and proteins and I can’t keep track of them. It’s not that it’s too conceptually difficult, I think, at least at the level it’s being presented here it just doesn’t seem to stick in my head. I do tend to find microbiology rather hard going. Carl Zimmer acknowledges that 'E coli may seem like an odd choice as a guide to life if the only place you've heard about it is in news reports of food poisoning'. Or perhaps it’s just that I’m not too excited by bacteria. The material was broadly familiar: I wouldn’t claim to know the subject well - I only know the bits and pieces I’ve picked up in other popular science books and New Scientist - but there weren’t that many wow moments when I learnt something surprising and new. coli as a way of looking at a whole range of related topics: evolution, cell biology, genetic engineering and so forth.Īs I would expect from him, he writes clearly and well, and the book is certainly interesting, but I wasn’t as excited by it as I expected. It’s also one of the most-studied life forms on earth because, like fruit flies and white mice, they are used as a standard laboratory research subject. Author of Evolution, Soul made flesh, Parasite Rex, A planet of viruses, Microcosm, Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins, Microcosm, At the Waters. The bacteria Escherichia coli is best known for occasionally causing food poisoning outbreaks, but most strains of it are harmless and indeed a normal part of our gut flora.
0 kommentar(er)
