Zimmer points out that techniques that once sparked a furor now make us insulin without the slightest hint of an issue. A full chapter is spent describing the controversy that followed science's first attempts at recombinant DNA, many aspects of which eerily parallel the current controversy over stem cells, right down to the people making the arguments. coli's flagellum played a starring role in demonstrating the difference between scientific studies and the contentions of the creationist movement.įor Zimmer, current controversies over stem cells and genetically modified food echo a past furor over the first genetically modified organism- E. A detailed exploration of the bacterial contribution to the tree of life takes a detour into the Dover trial, where E. coli has helped transform the way that modern society looks at the subject. The book takes an unexpected turn in the later chapters, though, as Zimmer moves from the basic understanding of life and into some of the ways that E. coli contamination problems, following the news. And even if many of the concepts don't completely stick, they will certainly leave the reader better equipped for reading more about biology. The fact that many of these are recurrent themes that are carefully woven throughout the work-evolution and horizontal gene transfer are pervasive-further lowers the risk of information overload. Fortunately, each individual topic is beautifully explained, limiting the chances of it all getting overwhelming. As a biologist, this material nicely slotted into my existing knowledge base, but someone with a less extensive background will undoubtedly be leaping from one bit of new information to the next. coli's role in furthering our understanding of evolution sophisticated concepts like horizontal gene transfer and error prone polymerases are all brought to bear on describing how fuzzy the barriers between species, strains, and individuals get at the bacterial level, and why these distinctions matter in terms of disease and drug resistance. The same is true for chapters that describe E. Each one of the stories that Zimmer describes have come to light through dozens of complicated papers, but he manages to keep the focus on the complexity, chaos, and wonder of the big picture. Some are loners, others form complex communities in biofilms and commit a form of suicide that can be viewed as the cellular equivalent of altruism. Some versions live harmlessly in us our entire lives, while others trigger nation-wide recalls because of their lethal contamination of our food supply. With the basic biology in place, the book proceeds to describe the dizzying variety of organisms that all fall under the E. On the plus side, returning to some subjects in new contexts will probably help drive many points home. Readers should be cautioned to take the first chapters slowly, because the information in them sets the stage for what follows. For example, the flagella, which propels the bacteria through liquid environments, returns as an example of gene regulation, and again as part of a discussion of the Dover trial. This pace is essentially unavoidable given the ground that Zimmer needs to cover, but many of the later chapters build on the earlier ones, so some material makes repeat appearances. Microcosm burns through a lot of information at a rapid clip. From the basics, he rapidly expands into metabolism, cell division, and the complex circuitry that regulates gene expression. coli and its viruses played a pivotal role in many of the classic experiments, so the digressions are short. By necessity, he brings a few other organisms into his story, but E. Zimmer takes a historical approach his subject matter, zipping through the rich record of experiments that first identified DNA as the hereditary material and told us how the cell copies it and translates it into proteins. Still, he handles the challenge extraordinarily well. Covering all of life is a big task, and Zimmer made the challenge that much harder on himself by choosing to target the book to a general audience. For Zimmer, the system that serves as a model of all life, and of humanity's often uncomfortable relationship to it, is the unprepossessing gut bacteria, Escherischia coli. coli and the New Science of Life, Science writer Carl Zimmer took that reductionist approach and applied it to a pretty big issue: life itself. The field of biology has been wildly successful by taking what's called a reductionist approach, i.e., you tackle a small problem in isolation in order to gain insight into larger questions.
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