March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen 4.5 StarsThis is a nicely written, fascinatingly informative book about microbe watching and how microbes function to produce the effects we see. Includes such things as the methane gas in smelly ponds, why ocean fish smell when they go bad, the production of wine, why yeast is included in bread, colourful microbe effects, various symbiotic relations, carbon/nitrogen/sulphur cycles, extremophiles, salt manufacture, ergotism, mushroom rings, and all sorts of other bacteria, fungi and viruses.NOTE: Minus a 1/2 star for not including the biochemical/ chemical formulae, for no colour/ B&W photographs of these fascinating microbes and for not including references. ( )

The word “Microbe” is given to living organisms whose size is less than one tenth of a millimeter. A microscope is required on order to see them. Microbes appeared on earth about 3 and a half billion years ago, about a million years after the planet was formed. Of the three categories of organisms that Biologists have defined (Bacteria, Archaea, and Eucarya), the first two are composed of only microbes, and the last one contains all other organisms (plants and animals) plus more microbes (e.g. fungus and yeasts).

These facts and many other stories about the invisible life all around us and in us are described in this book. For example:

Only microbes have the ability to “fix” nitrogen (i.e. use the gaseous form found in the atmosphere), and thereby make it available for other forms of life for whom it is necessary for survival. Cyanobacteria are capable of photosynthesis. Plants are also capable of photosynthesis only because long ago, an ancestral plant captured microbes called chloroplasts and acquired the ability. The author explains the role of microbes in making cheese and sparkling wine. And he tells how the virus Myxoma was used to reduce the huge rabbit population in Australia, and how later a variation of the same virus was used to protect a sparse rabbit population in Spain. He describes the importance of microbes to the carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles of ecosystems, and how they help shape certain geological features and even how they help form clouds over oceans. The wide influence of these invisible beings is unsettling.

The author's writing style is exceptionally clear and direct. My high school biology class was many years ago, but the book didn't require me to remember much of it (I don't). I think that readers with a college biology background will also enjoy the book. At least a few of the 50 or so examples of microbial activity might surprise even biology-savvy readers. ( )