by Roberto — Soil, the ma­te­r­ial on the sur­face of the ground on which plants grow, is it­self teem­ing with life. And there's a term that uni­fies all that life as an in­ter­con­nected whole: edaphon. Though it is sel­dom found in the sci­en­tific lit­er­a­ture, I will ar­gue that it should be more widely taught and used.