![]() Indeed, "Microcosm" ought to be regarded as "Macrocosm", since Zimmer has offered an elegant, often poetic, exploration of all of biology, by demonstrating E. coli is truly a wonderful organismal metaphor for describing all of biology in its totality, as evidenced, for example, in one of Zimmer's terse chapters devoted to the evolution of cooperation amongst organisms via mechanisms such as natural selection and kin selection an elegant experimental analogue to the types of selective pressures operating on other, more complex, organisms, including us. coli, whose ubiquitous habitats include the intestinal tracts of humans and other mammals. But it is a book that takes such an in-depth exploration of biology from the unique perspective of a rather most unassuming organism - or at least what readers might think - the bacterium E. More than a mere recounting of decades of elegant scientific research from the likes of Joshua Lederberg and Salvador Luria, among others, "Microcosm" is truly a book about contemporary biology itself, tying in almost every facet of it, from systematics to population genetics and ecology, and even, paleobiology. With the trained eyes of a scientist and the soul of poet, eminent science writer Carl Zimmer takes us on an all too brief, yet fascinating, trek into contemporary biology, as seen from the perspective of the bacterium Escherichia coli, in his latest book, "Microcosm: E. ![]() If Zimmer had included those items in his history lesson, it wouldn't be subtitled "*E.coli* and the New Science of Life" then, would it? ![]() As such, it misses out on much of bacteriology in favor of molecular genetics, barely mentioning Pasteur and Robert Koch not at all. My only complaints with this book are the obvious: This book presents one perspective, focused on one type of microbe. It's that palimpsest that serves as both a history book of how it has been modified from its ancestors, but also as an example of "Open Source" text available to modification by its descendents and accessible to horizontal gene transfer. In the process of his story, Zimmer explains how the bacterial genome is more of a palimpsest rather than an instruction manual - a book that's been written and re-written many, many times. ![]() Then there's the story of E.coli's vast evolutionary potential - from antibiotic resistence to immune evasion tactics, the simple and rapid replication cycle of bacteria have enabled natural selection, ecological niches, and population divergence to be studied over the course of tens of thousands of generations. Even genetic engineering techniques were pioneered in E.coli, which Zimmer describes in the chapter on "Playing Nature" - a nice twist on the old saying "Playing God," that is actually more appropriate. A long series of discoveries, made with E.coli as the experimental system, have elucidated the mechanisms of DNA replication and transcription, regulation of gene expression, and basic metabolism. And of course no book on E.coli would be complete without re-tracing its role in molecular biology. Most pointedly, E.coli populations offer clues into the nature of cooperation and competition, altruism and spite. Zimmer reinforces this theme with repeated mention of a Jacques Monod quote, "What is true for E.coli is true for the elephant. The theme running throughout is that E.coli is a microcosm for understanding all of life. E.coli's normal and pathological roles in the animal body have taught us volumes about the inventive potential of life. This simple bacterium and its various strains have always been there since we first started looking for the microbes involved in human disease. As Zimmer points out, E.coli has held a central role in microbiology since its first description by German pediatrician Theodor Escherich in the 19th century. In Microcosm, Zimmer has eloquently condensed a century of scientific study surrounding Eschericia coli into an accurate and flowing story readable by anyone with even just a modest understanding of biology.
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