The Hidden Half of Nature

Posted on 05 November 2017 by David R. Montgomery

Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes Good health for people and for plants depends on Earth s smallest creatures The Hidden Half of Nature tells the story of our tangled relationship with microbes and their potential to revolutionize agriculture and medicine, from garden to gut.When David R Montgomery and Anne Bikl decide to restore life into their barren yard by creating a garden, dead dirt threatens their dream As a cure, they feed their soil a steady diet of organic matter The results impress them In short order, the much maligned microbes transform their bleak yard into a flourishing Eden Beneath their feet, beneficial microbes and plant roots continuously exchange a vast array of essential compounds The authors soon learn that this miniaturized commerce is central to botanical life s master strategy for defense and health.They are abruptly plunged further into investigating microbes when Bikl is diagnosed with cancer Here, they discover an unsettling truth An armada of bacteria our microbiome sails the seas of our gut, enabling our immune system to sort microbial friends from foes But when our gut microbiome goes awry, our health can go with it The authors also discover startling insights into the similarities between plant roots and the human gut We are not what we eat We are all for better or worse the product of what our microbes eat.This leads to a radical reconceptualization of our relationship to the natural world by cultivating beneficial microbes, we can rebuild soil fertility and help turn back the modern plague of chronic diseases The Hidden Half of Nature reveals how to transform agriculture and medicine by merging the mind of an ecologist with the care of a gardener and the skill of a doctor. Best Read [ The Hidden Half of Nature ] author [ David R. Montgomery ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Soil fascinates me I m not a scientist or a biologist, but ecology is one of my passions, and the role of soil the source of plant life and health, rejuvenated by organic matter and critters, essential to agriculture and healthy food, able to sequester carbon, so tied in to the whole web of life is vastly interesting to me I read this book because I m a fan of David Montgomery s other science books for general audiences, and was interested to learnabout he and his wife rejuvenated th Soil fascinates me I m not a scientist or a biologist, but ecology is one of my passions, and the role of soil the source of plant life and health, rejuvenated by organic matter and critters, essential to agriculture and healthy food, able to sequester carbon, so tied in to the whole web of life is vastly interesting to me I read this book because I m a fan of David Montgomery s other science books for general audiences, and was interested to learnabout he and his wife rejuvenated their Seattle yard s and created a garden I m also a Seattleite who has a yard full of soil that needs some help I didn t initially realize when I picked up the book that it was also about our internal microbiome The advances in our understanding of our gut flora in recent years are amazing, and I recently read a book on this exact topic So although the book wasn t always the most riveting read for my bus commute it s nonfiction, after all , I...The authors are a married couple, one a geologist and the other a biologist When they moved into a new home in Seattle, they discovered as many other American home owners have that the soil in their backyard was about 1 2 inches of turf over clay It is apparently standard practice to scrape away all the topsoil when making a new development, then buy turf to lay on top of that just before the sale.So, they set about trying to improve the soil This basically required a lot of organic matter The authors are a married couple, one a geologist and the other a biologist When they moved into a new home in Seattle, they discovered as many other American home owners have that the soil in their backyard was about 1 2 inches of turf over clay It is apparently standard practice to scrape away all the topsoil when making a new development, then buy turf to lay on top of that just before the sale.So, they s...I feel bad for not liking this book I love all things microbes but don t love the writing style It was a biography,than anything else, which I am sure worked for many people, but it didn t work for me There were some interesting aspects to the book but I had to wade through the personal lives of the authors, and I just couldn t make myself care about their house, their garden, or their lives Of course I care about cancer and am always intere...A book that covers a something you can t see but is integral to the web of life on earth, microbes and fungi and how they keep soil fertile and keep people healthy The first third covers fungi and microbes in soil and the second two thirds talks about gut microbes, our microbiome A lot of interesting info on areas that are currently being heavily researched andfully understood I am in no position to determine how accurate the info is but it seems well researched The final couple of ch A book that covers a something you can t see but is integral to the web of life on earth, microbes and fungi and how they keep soil fertile and keep people healthy The first third covers fungi and microbes in soil and the second two thirds talks about gut microbes, our microbiome A lot ...The Hidden Half of Nature is a very balanced book using both personal stories and the histories of agriculture, science, and medicine to contextualize the impact of the microbial world on both soil and digestive tract health, and why those things matter Over the course of the book, it develops that both the soil around plant roots and the cavities of the human colon have an odd number of similarities Both develop microbe ecologies that play critical roles in extracting nutrients and protecti The Hidden Half of Nature is a very balanced book using both personal stories and the histories of agriculture, science, and medicine to contextualize the impact of the microbial world on both soil and digestive tract health, and why those things matter Over the course of the book, it develops that both the soil around plant roots and the cavities of the human colon have an odd number of similarities Both develop microbe ecologies that play critical roles in extracting nutrients and protecting their broader organisms from disease Both have been overlooked in twentieth century trends towards chemical applications that made real contributions but have been overextended, and overlooked in a way that requires continual human intervention Both can be rebuilt with the appropriate organic matter.For the most part, this book is briskly paced,...A really approachable guide to the research behind microbiome theory I loved how David and Anne combine their research and experience, both agricultural and medicinal I think further research will similarly point to the connections ...This was a strange book to read At several points, I almost quit reading it because of the giant leaps between back and forth between overly detailed technical science and overly generalized policy directives And just generally I didn t enjoy it, but there was enough detail to keep me reading The idea of the book, that the microbial environment and the microbiota that surround us and are within us are critical for a true understanding of environmental and personal health, is undeniable And i This was a strange book to read At several points, I almost quit reading it because of the giant leaps between back and forth between overly detaile...Not exactly what i had expected I thought it would be a lotabout the microscopic life in the upper layer of the ground arthropods, fungi, bacteria, etc which help the gardener and nature This book was actually much about medicine and health which isn t really my cup of ...In general it was a good book especially for the general audience who may just be getting introduced to the ideas in this book I enjoyed the sections on the working with the gardenthan the sections about the microbiome of our bodies I was actually disappointed by the sections on the microbiome of our bodies as there was no mention of Bechamps although they talked a lot about Pasteur In the end I felt as if I hadn t gotten any new information and that there was a lot that could have been In general it ...This is the first book I ve seen that really stitches together the importance of microbes in both our soils and our bodies Gives a great overview of the scientists and actors involved in our current understanding of germ theory and health without b...

English
05 November 2017

David R. Montgomery