|
Loading... The Five-Second Rule and Other Myths About Germs: What Everyone Should…by Anne E. Maczulak
 charlierb3 | Dec 16, 2007 | 
About: A layman's introduction to microbiology. Explains what microbiologists do, what types of microbiology there are and the history of the field. Many different germs are explained and shown either in photos or diagrams. Types of germ killing products and how to use them are described. Pros: A very thorough introduction written in understandable terms, covers a ton of ground. Glossary, other resources and bibliography included. Things I learned: * E. coli resides only in human and animal digestive tracts. * There are only 6,000 to 10,000 known species of microbes, far less than one percent of the total thought to exist. * The amount of harmless microbes on Earth vastly out number the dangerous ones. * Contaminating our water supply would be a very inefficient terrorist attack. * 70 percent isopropyl alcohol is used because higher amounts (say, 95 percent) evaporates too quickly to destroy all microbes. * Mucus is a noun, mucous is an adjective. * People with tattoos are six times more likely to have hepatitis C * Regarding the 1918 flu epidemic, the surgeon general said: "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration, civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks." * 38 percent of people do not know there is no cure for AIDS * Does the five-second rule work? It depends. Since microbes are all about, one should assume anything dropped will pick up some germs, five seconds is easily enough time for this to happen. Microbes are invisible, so "looking clean" means nothing. Also consider that most microbes are harmless and our immune system is pretty good at fighting stuff off. Cons: Can read like a textbook and the info comes at the reader non-stop, so the book is best in small doses. The "five-second rule" idea seems like it was tacked on in order to drum up interest (well, this did work on me) as the concept is only mentioned a few times in the book and summed up in a half-page at the end. I found a few little errors: hepatitis C is referred to as HVC and then once as HCV on page 211, the index lists both "Five-Second Rule" and "five-second rule." Grade: B (  ) charlierb3 | Dec 16, 2007 | |
Popular covers |
Pros: A very thorough introduction written in understandable terms, covers a ton of ground. Glossary, other resources and bibliography included.
Things I learned:
* E. coli resides only in human and animal digestive tracts.
* There are only 6,000 to 10,000 known species of microbes, far less than one percent of the total thought to exist.
* The amount of harmless microbes on Earth vastly out number the dangerous ones.
* Contaminating our water supply would be a very inefficient terrorist attack.
* 70 percent isopropyl alcohol is used because higher amounts (say, 95 percent) evaporates
too quickly to destroy all microbes.
* Mucus is a noun, mucous is an adjective.
* People with tattoos are six times more likely to have hepatitis C
* Regarding the 1918 flu epidemic, the surgeon general said: "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration, civilization could easily disappear from the face of the earth within a few weeks."
* 38 percent of people do not know there is no cure for AIDS
* Does the five-second rule work? It depends. Since microbes are all about, one should assume anything dropped will pick up some germs, five seconds is easily enough time for this to happen. Microbes are invisible, so "looking clean" means nothing. Also consider that most microbes are harmless and our immune system is pretty good at fighting stuff off.
Cons: Can read like a textbook and the info comes at the reader non-stop, so the book is best in small doses. The "five-second rule" idea seems like it was tacked on in order to drum up interest (well, this did work on me) as the concept is only mentioned a few times in the book and summed up in a half-page at the end. I found a few little errors: hepatitis C is referred to as HVC and then once as HCV on page 211, the index lists both "Five-Second Rule" and "five-second rule."
Grade: B