Nicholas P. Money

Dr. Money is wonderfully funny, yet very detailed. He admits that he started out investigating toxic mold as a skeptical professional mycologist, but concedes that although the media and legal hype are excessive, there is something there to be concerned about - the spores and other bits of the common black mold Stachybotrys chartarum and related species really do contain trichothenes and other very nasty compounds, and although not quite a smoking gun in cases of infant pulmonary hemorrhage, show more are at least a piece lying on the floor near the body with a whiff of cordite still lingering in the barrel.


Money has written several books on fungi, and based on this one I will definitely be picking the others up. Here he concentrates on only those molds of interest to the legal profession. There’s a very professional and detailed discussion of how allergic responses work, and Money makes it clear that although allergy is bad enough molds can also produce actual toxins - poisons that are not dependent on allergic response to work. He’s careful to maintain skepticism, and cites cases of outright fraud in mold litigation claims. All through this he maintains a very dry sense of humor: here’s some examples -


“The stench of decay produced by indoor molds is difficult to describe, but might (I’m guessing) bear some similarity to a sumo wrestler’s laundry basket.”

“If invigorating one’s immune system with high doses of fungal walls is shown to fight disease, I’ll be the first to strip naked and dive into a tub of mushrooms.”

“Like most Americans I am opposed to vivisection, with the caveat that if it is necessary to slay a flock of bunnies with a lawnmower to keep my carcass running for an extra decade, thenn ladies and gentlemen start your engines.”

Some of the chapters don’t quite hang together; I wonder if they were originally separate essays? Although all the references are cited in endnotes, there’s no separate bibliography or recommended reading list. Minor quibbles - four stars at least, and I want to do some more reading on fungal taxonomy. show less

I love this book. It has actual science for intelligent people in it, with witty and amusing observations. This book takes a look at man's ancient co-dependence with yeast (the sugar fungus) and how that relationship is still going strong in the 21st century.

The author first starts off with "Yeasty Basics" - a bit of yeast biology, biochemistry and history. The role of yeast in ancient and modern alcoholic beverages (beer, wine) and food (bread, marmite) is examined. True to the subtitle, show more the author explains how yeast's ability to ferment sugars cultivated the beginnings of civilization. The author also expands of the role of yeast beyond just brewing and baking - yeast is also been used extensively in biologicaly research and biotechnology, such as biofuel production, synthetic silk production, and the production of some medicines (e.g. insulin, blood products, vaccines, ocriplasmin). In a chapter title "Yeasts of Wrath", the role of yeasts in human health and disease has been explored. A chapter is also dedicated to different types of yeast in the wild.

I found this book wildly entertaining, extremely interesting, educational and a joy to read.

In the author's own words:

"Yeast come in many species, but the sugar fungus reigns supreme as our partner in civilization. We would not be here without her. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens have been inseparable for thousands of years. We are reflections of each other, our genetic similarities reflecting the deep ancestral root from which our common cellular machinery arose. Matched expressions of these genomes allow the fungus to ferment alcohol and us to digest it. This metabolic coordination, spread over a few thousand generations of human pleasure and pain - alcohol delivering both - developed in the rainforests from which apes with an upright gait migrated to the savannah. Our complex relationship with alcohol, and later with leavened bread, drove agriculture and settlement. From these splendors came civilization, political organization, militarization, and mass starvation. Later fruits of our yeast-driven civilization included science and technology, engineering and medicine, exponential population growth, and the attendant destruction of the biosphere. And in this time of considerable climatic peril, industrial applications of yeast promise major advance in biotechnology and offer some hope - perhaps our only hope - of powering a carbon neutral economy. The future of humanity depends more on this bug than on any farm animal or crop plant.

In short order, science has transformed the mysterious agent of fermentation into a living factory known inside and out, scrutinized in all its molecular splendor, and manipulated gene by gene to perform astounding feats of biotechnology. this inspiring microbe, the sugar fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a secular deity, something to be revered as much as the warmth of the sun." show less

The book is basically a sweeping overview of the entire field of mycology, from the viewpoint of one researcher and mycophile. That is, he tells not only of the fungi he's seen, but of the other researchers he's worked with and met, and the historical figures whose work he's drawn from (and been drawn into). The chapters jump from phallic fungi to fungal disease to life cycles to historical mycologists to fungal sex lifes. When I put it that way, it seems like a terribly disjointed book, but show more somehow Money pulled off such a broad scope beautifully and interestingly. It reads like you're sitting down having a conversation with him, and the conversation flows seamlessly from topic to topic, and sometimes goofy asides are made. Money is as good of a storyteller in writing as he is in person, and at some points I found myself in giggles. Despite reaching a decent level of technicality sometimes, the tone always remained light. This is how popular science should be written. show less

I enjoyed it but you could make this book twice as good by including more biology of yeast. Especially since the author is a biologist. I know I can open wikipedia but it's not like adding a couple more pages with a few diagrams wouldn't fit within the covers.