Planet of Microbes: The Perils and Potential of Earth's Essential Life Forms

This book is supposed to be about the recent discoveries that have to do with microbes. In fact, it ends up being a long-winded, somewhat disorganised, poorly written biography of the scientists involved in those discoveries. There is minimal actual science in this book (none of which is explained properly) and even the discoveries are given highly superficial treatment, thus providing a vague idea of the importance of microbes but not explaining how they do what they do. There were also many repetitions and what I assume are editing oversights (left out words and nonsense sentences), as well as some oddball choices, such as describing Lynne Margulis by her maiden surname (Alexander) then in the same paragraph referring to her by her show more second marriage surname (Margulis), while discussing her first marriage to Carl Sagan; or discussing one scientist and then jumping around to other scientists and different topics before randomly jumping back to the first scientist. Nothing in this book is new. The topics covered in this book are discussed more successfully in other books.

OTHER BOOKS ABOUT MICROBES

- I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
- Amoeba in the Room: Lives of the Microbes by Nicholas P. Money
- The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery
- March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen by John L. Ingraham
- Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna
- The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise Of Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Michael Shnayerson, Mark J. Plotkin
- Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane show less