I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed YongMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
In case you were unaware, we are never alone.
The fact we are our own ecosystems can be distressing to some, especially after we've been taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. However, a rich realization lies in recognizing we're also our own islands, that we form microbe archipelagos with the people we live with, and that released introductions from islands with nearby fauna may be the key to healing those with collapsed microbial ecosystems.
Ed Yong delved into this topic three years ago on the TED stage, though in that talk he focused more on microbial manipulation via Wolbachia and Toxoplasma to affect the behavior and biology of hosts. Bacterial control of multicellular organisms can be terrifying... or extremely fascinating, and I'm the latter. There are so many interesting research questions that have yet to be explored regarding the relationship between different microbes, the microbes and host, what the behavior influence is caused by, etc. The multitude of mysteries is almost enough to make me want to go back into academia after leaving it... *almost*. Luckily, if I ever did, the microbiome still seems to be the sexy science topic du jour and we still don't know much about it.
Besides covering a fascinating topic, Ed's writing is sharp, clear, and enjoyable to read. He's long been one of my favorite science writers at his Not Exactly Rocket Science blog (moving between an independent site, the early-but-influential ScienceBlogs network, Discover, and National Geographic over the past decade before ending earlier this year), and still writes great long-form pieces over at The Atlantic. After some mid-2000s grumbling about whether or not blogs were a threat to journalism, it is extremely gratifying to see in the 2010s, the definition between who is a blogger and who is a journalist have blurred and that yes, some can even make the jump to the longest form writing of all- books.
A sidenote: I recently finished my masters in a lab that is heavily focused on symbiosis and evolution at different levels (my PI's previous work involves competing mitochondrial genomes; others in the lab work on anemone-algae relationships and the interaction between Wolbachia and plant-parasitic nematode), so I did come to this book with some prior knowledge. It's a little weird when reading and then coming across the name of a biologist I follow on twitter (John McCutcheon! Katie Hinde!) or a friend's PI (Rebecca Vega-Thurber!) The world may seem big, but Twitter makes it smaller and as you read, check to see if the referenced scientist is online- @ ing them is a great way to show an interest in their work because often, it feels like the only other people reading are those in the research community.
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