Book Review: Carl Zimmer's Microcosm

Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life

Carl Zimmer

Today marks the release of Carl Zimmer's latest book, Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. Yesterday, I published an interview with the author - who was kind enough not only to agree to an interview but to send me an advance copy of the text.

Let me start out by saying that this book is worth your time. I want to get that out of the way, so if you only read this far then you know you should go buy it and you can get on with your life. The danger with science books written for a general audience is that by definition they have skirt the line between technical and accessible - all too often, such books fall a bit too far on one side or the other of that line. The risk is that you'll have something either just beyond your understanding or something that talks down to you. It's a hard line to walk - but Zimmer seems to almost dance it.

The Technical

On the one hand, this book is educational. Read this and you'll learn not only how the study of E. coli led to the birth of Molecular Genetics but also quite a bit about how science itself works. Zimmer takes the time, again and again, to posit an impossible-seeming question about E. coli and then, like a magician pulling increasingly impressive objects out of a hat, goes on to describe a brilliant experiment that found an elegant way to answer exactly that question.

The overall effect is a sort of inclusive historical narrative - we're not just introduced to a bunch of properties of this microbe. Instead, we as readers become invested in the century-long struggle to understand it. We understand how each major discovery leads to more questions, and we are introduced to the individuals who found clever ways to answer those questions. In this sense, the book reads more like a biography of E. coli than any sort of science textbook.

The Accessible

Which brings us to the other side of the aforementioned line. When you finish this book, you feel that you've learned a great deal - but on some level, it doesn't feel like you've just finished studying. Putting this down is like putting down a satisfying novel, or perhaps a poetic essay. We have a plot, we have characters - it's at times a murder mystery and at times something close to a romance in the telling. It's engaging, as though Zimmer has realized that the best way to make you understand something is to make you interested. What a novel thought.

But learning a lot in an accessible way isn't always its own reward - I can still hear the critic in the back of your mind saying "Great, so it's a readable and informative look at food poisoning - what's the big deal?" And to be honest, when I first heard about the subject matter for this latest text that was my first response. What you have to realize, though, is that learning about E. coli has very little to do with bad spinach and stomach aches - the scope of this project is completely different from what you might expect.

E. coli: The Stakes

So, why an entire book about E. coli? Because in studying this single microbe, scientists have been able to learn a staggering amount about how life itself works. In a quote that rounds out one of the first sections of the text, Nobel laureate Jacques Monod states that "What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant."

What he means is that in studying E. coli, scientists were able to come to grips with a great many concepts that we take for granted today - the way genes and chromosomes work, the nature of DNA, even something so simple as Natural Selection. It was in the early 20th century study of this Microbe that everything fell into place for biologists; E. coli was the gateway to a profound understanding not only of cellular biology but of life in general.

Zimmer manages to really drive this point home - as he weaves throughout this text, he manages to connect E. coli to everything from common questions of immunity to concepts as specific as fighting Diabetes. In following Zimmer's path we gain insight into Birth, Old Age and everything in between - but through a completely unique lens. In short, Carl Zimmer makes the sheer relevance of this microbe into an irrefutable fact.

So, what are you waiting for? Haven't you ever been curious about this thing called life? Where it comes from, how it works? If you're looking for something entertaining and intellectually stimulating, go pick up this book today - you won't be disappointed. And, if you missed it yesterday, do yourself a favor and check out my interview with the author - it puts a slightly more personal touch on the whole affair.

As always, thanks for reading and please leave your thoughts below.

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Interview: Carl Zimmer, Author of Microcosm

Mykola Bilokonsky

Mon May 5

10