Begun three centuries ago by pioneers who constructed rudimentary microscopes to observe otherwise invisible life, the field of microbiology has often evolved in unexpected ways. Through the techniques introduced by these first luminaries, our knowledge of what Leeuwenhoek called animalcules has deepened considerably. So too has our awareness of our paradoxical relationship with the microbial world. Microorganisms continually assail our tissues, yet they also provide the means of promoting human health and environmental well-being. This entertaining and informative volume provides a broad picture of the most compelling areas of the field, its early history, and its recent discoveries.
Animalcules presents a collection of the columns of the same name that have been published over the course of the past 12 years in Microbe (formerly ASM News). This volume is an erudite, yet approachable overview of microbiology. It introduces the field’s earliest “microbe hunters” in their human context. By chronicling the history, pioneers, and discoveries of microbiology, Animalcules provides an important window into the incredible diversity of the microbial world. It covers the pioneering work of early scientists like Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Robert Hooke, and Hideyo Noguchi while also providing thoughtful explanations on timely topics such as Botox, Lyme disease, and bioremediation.
Table of Contents
I. Touching Life at Many Points
1. Disseminators Aloft?
2. Pantoea and the Locust
3. The Microbiology of Art
4. Why Do They Do It?
5. Out of the Blue
6. Reflections on Cellulolysis
7. Jelly From Space?
8. Botox and Dairy Cows
9. Fiction, Fact, and Reality
10. Microbiology for Gastronomes
11. The Double Life of Escherichia coli
12. Not All Cigars and Caviar
13. Microbial Versatility in Berlin
14. Whither Psychoneuroimmunology?
II. The Ecological Context
15. Communal Diversity in Biofilms
16. Biofilm Life
17. Our Most Abundant Coterrestrials
18. Helicobacter from the Seas?
19. Selective Agencies
20. Natural Disaster Microbiology
21. Foot-and-Mouth Folly?
22. Ecology Lessons
23. Biocides in the Kitchen
24. Conjectures and Realities
25. Exterminating Pathogens
26. Learning from Denmark
27. Protozoa and Lurking Pathogens
28. What Is Virulence?
III. The Human Context
29. Questionable Experiments
30. Lyme Disease: the Public Dimension
31. Blatant Opportunism
32. Bioscience Embattled
33. “Playing God”
34. Microbes in the Media
35. A Little Learning…
36. Spotlight on Acetaldehyde
37. Measles, Polio, and Conscience
38. Myxomatosis: Grim Questions
39. Rationalizing Vaccination
40. A European Furor
41. Bioremediation and Greenery
42. The Citation Game
IV. Personalia
43. Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Clifford Dobell, and Robert Hooke
44. Robert Koch and His Postulates
45. Hideyo Noguchi, Max Theiler, and Yellowjack
46. René Dubos’s Mirage of Health
47. Ferdinand Cohn, Neglected Visionary
48. Johannes Fibiger, a Dane to Remember
49. Frederick Twort, Codiscoverer of Phages
50. Alick Isaacs and Interferon
51. Dissenters: Max von Pettenkofer and Friedrich Wolter
52. Gerhard Domagk and the Origins of Sulfa
53. Cecil Hoare’s Eponymous Organism
54. Ants and Fred Hoyle’s Challenge to Darwinism
55. Pioneers of American Microbiology
V. Doing Microbiology
56. At the Level of Cowpats
57. Fishy Business
58. Science a La Mode?
59. “Wherever They Are Found…”
60. There’s More To Do
61. Self-Frustration
62. Genomics and Innovation in Antibiotics
63. The Relevance of Taxonomy
64. Yeasts Are Complex…
65. …And Yeasts Are Versatile
66. Resounding Banalities
67. Microbiology Present and Future
68. Looking Back
69. A Global Challenge