Capsule Reviews

Welcome to the Microbiome, The Paradox of Evolution, Newton's Apple, and Dawn of the Neuron.

Written byBob Grant

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Rob DeSalle and Susan L. Perkins
Yale University Press, November 2015

Microbiome research has been on a meteoric rise for several years. And with a steadily improving understanding of the complex web of microbial interactions occurring around and inside us comes an appreciation of humanity’s place in a world run by microscopic organisms. Welcome to the Microbiome, written by entomologist Rob DeSalle and microbial genomicist Susan Perkins, serves as a field guide to this world and cultivates the emerging perspective that humans are merely a minuscule population in a world that is largely microbial.

From the shared evolutionary history of microbes and humans to the modern impact of microbiomes on science and medicine, DeSalle and Perkins bore into the subject from the bottom up. “Our ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
Go to The Scientist's LinkedIn Page
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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