Fine Read­ing: March of the Mi­crobes, by John In­gra­ham

by Elio

A good friend has writ­ten a good book. March of the Mi­crobes, just pub­lished by Har­vard Univ. Press, presents tales from the mi­cro­bial world, wide and deep. It em­pha­sizes mi­cro­bial ac­tiv­i­ties that you can see, smell, touch, taste, and, if you in­clude cows belch­ing, hear. John calls these en­coun­ters sight­ings. Some are man­i­fested in our daily do­ings, such as the teeth we brush, the bread we eat, the beer we drink, or the fish we left over­long in the 'fridge. Oth­ers re­quire us to go far­ther afield, mak­ing trips to the hot springs of Yel­low­stone Park, fields of legumes, mu­ni­tion fac­to­ries, or the San Fran­cisco Bay. You may have heard (or seen) many of the sight­ings de­scribed, al­though some are not com­mon­place. Did you know that starch be­comes the ubiq­ui­tous high fruc­tose corn syrup via degra­da­tion by bac­te­r­ial en­zymes? Or that the famed Carls­bad Cav­erns are the re­sult of bac­te­r­ial min­ing? The mi­cro­bi­ol­o­gist will find the sto­ries both il­lu­mi­nat­ing and au­thor­i­ta­tive. The lay per­son will be as­ton­ished at the mar­vels of our un­seen world.

This is a book writ­ten with love. John is pas­sion­ate about all mi­crobes he has ever en­coun­tered, bar none, and shares his fer­vor in a clear, un­pre­ten­tious man­ner. I should know. Along with Fred Nei­d­hardt, we have our names on four (or is it five?) books.