Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live
A natural history of the wilderness in our homes, from the microbes in our showers to the crickets in our basementsEven when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters You are not alone Yet, as we obsess over sterilizing our homes and separating our spaces from nature, we are unwittingly cultivating an entirely new playground for evolution These changes are reshaping the organisms that live with us prompting some to become dangerous, while undermining those species that benefit our bodies or help us keep threatening organisms at bay No one who reads this engrossing, revelatory book will look at their homes in the same way again. New Read Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live author Rob Dunn For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Why am I giving 3 stars to a book I m dnf ing The book is well written and much of it is interesting, but I don t know how reliable the author s research and conclusions are So far, I ve come across two inaccuracies, one of which the author points out himself Since my knowledge of this area is very limited I don t want to end up thinking that what I learn from this book might not be correct.The first problem The author cites research on the disappearance of certain butterfly species with the Why am I giving 3 stars to a book I m dnf ing The book is well written and much of it is interesting, but I don t know how reliable the author s research and conclusions are So far, I ve come across two inaccuracies, one of which the author points out himself Since my knowledge of this area is very limited I don t want to end up thinking that what I learn from this boo...At first, I wasn t sure I wanted to read this book A germ o phobe reading a book about all those creepy, crawly, microscopic things covering just about every surface on earth Ugh, no No way, no how A book like this would be sure to give me nightmares and make me eventerrified to touch every doorknob, ink pen, faucet, groceries in the store that I d starve for being too afraid to pick up and take home Well, OK, that s going a bit too far but maybe reading this book would, even if I At first, I wasn t sure I wanted to read this book A germ o phobe reading a book about all those creepy, crawly, microscopic things covering just about every surface on earth Ugh, no No way, no how A book like this would be sure to give me nightmares and make me eventerrified to touch every doorknob, ink pen, faucet, groceries in the store that I d starve for being too afraid to pick up and take home Well, OK, that s going a bit too far but maybe reading this book would, even if I d...Dunn is fascinated by the organisms that live in our homes and there are a LOT of themroughly 200,000 species Dunn is a professor of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University and also works at the Natural History Museum of Denmark He initially undertook this study of indoor organisms with the idea that he could help to make our homes healthier The BIG takeaway from the book is that humans benefit from biodiversityleave your windows open, dont kill all of the spiders that get in your Dunn is fascinated by the organisms that live in our homes and there are a LOT of them roughly 200,000 species Dunn is a professor of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University and also works at the Natural History Museum of Denmark He initially undertook this study of indoor organisms with the idea that he could help to make our homes healthier The BIG takeaway from the book is that humans benefit from biodiversity leave your windows open, don t kill all of the spiders that get in your house, and keep pets in the house Fewer than a hundred species of bacteria, viruses and protists cause nearly all of the infectious illnesses in the world Unfortunately, these guys also are some of the toughest microbes to get rid of So when we chlorinate the water, and douse our houses and bodies with antiseptics we actually kill off the natural predators that would keep these bad ...There is no need to call the Orkin Man or rush around spraying Lysol on everything in your house, including yourself You can t escape the 20,000 plus microbes that are living all around you and all over you, so this is not a book for the reader who is afraid of the creepy crawlers.This is an interesting study of the microscopic life that covers the earth, although I must admit I found it a bit slow in places The author traces the history of microbiology since the pioneering scientist Anton van There is no need to call the Orkin Man or rush around spraying Lysol on everything in your house, including yourself You can t escape the 20,000 plus microbes that are living all around you and all over you, so this is not a book for the reader who is afraid of the creepy crawlers.This is an interesting study of the microscopic life that covers the earth, although I must admit I found it a bit slow in places The author traces the history of microbiology since the pioneering scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek first saw the invisible to the naked eye creatures that surround us through his microscope Although we often think of these microbes as dangerous and disease bearing, that is not true in the majority of instances There are many that are helpful to human and plant life and assist in maintaining a balance in nature The author also touches rather too briefly the household pests that we ...I m rating this highly for sheer quantity of content and number of researchers Be aware though, that the book doesn t so much discuss household pests as microscopic life Mice yes, but mainly to analyse their parasites and likelihood of being eaten by cats In an astounding correlation, the blood of people who tookrisks, was found to havelikelihood of antibodies to the parasite that causes mouse brains to become hyperactive and not afraid of cats To get there, we have come I m rating this highly for sheer quantity of content and number of researchers Be aware though, that the book doesn t so much discuss household pests as microscopic life Mice yes, but mainly to analyse their parasites and likelihood of being eaten by cats In an astounding correlation, the blood of people who tookrisks, was found to havelikelihood of antibodies to the parasite that causes mouse brains to become hyperactive and not afraid of cats To get there, we have come through a Dutch early scientist Leeuwenhoek who made his own glass microscopes and tubes to study pepper grains in water he explored living bacteria and protists...Finally, a new pop science book that clicked at Chap 1 Great stories of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek the pioneer in this stuff back in the 17th C He continued his studies for some 50 years, of his 90 year life span But the really striking thing about his work is, that nobody else followed up on microbiology around the house until, um,about now Think about thatOK, so modern domestic microbi...A nonfiction book about the various things that live in human houses, from bacteria and fungi on up You would assume certainly I assumed that we already know what lives in our houses that surely the creatures we come into contact with every day have been thoroughly studied Dunn points out that, actually, every scientist has assumed the same thing since shortly after the invention of the microscope, and thus we know less about our daily companions than we do about what s hiding in the leaf A nonfiction book about the various things that live in human houses, from bacteria and fungi on up You would assume certainly I assumed that we already know what li...When my kids were young, we had a beloved and much thumbed book called The Secret House It was a lot of electron microscope photos of the rather appalling creatures that live on our carpets, in our refrigerators, beds, and dark corners If youve ever seen a dust mite enlarged and up close, you know exactly what I mean Rob Dunn has written a fascinating, entertaining, and yeah, at moments almost scary account of the microbes that inhabit our homes This is science writing at its very best in When my kids were young, we had a beloved and much thumbed book called The Secret House It was a lot of electron microscope photos of the rather appalling creatures that live on our carpets, in our refrigerators, beds, and dark corners If you ve ever seen a dust mite enlarged and up close, you know exactly what I mean Rob Dunn has written a fascinating, entertaining, and yeah, at moments almost scary account of the microbes that inhabit our homes This is science writing at its very best in the form ...A fascinating book on the bacteria, fungus, arthropods, etc that inhabit our homes and also on us At first glance, this might look bad and your first though is how to get rid of them But as the author shows, this is the wrong reaction Instead, most of those inhabitants are usually harmless and are actually helpful to us as they inhabit living spaces and help deny that space to the few pathogens that could harm us In short, having them in our homes can lead to a healthy home with few A fascinating book on the bacteria, fungus, arthropods, etc that inhabit our homes and also on us At first glance, this might look bad and your first though is how to get rid of them But as the author shows, this is the wrong reaction Instead, most of those inhabitants are usually harmless and are actually helpful to us as they inhabit living spaces and help deny that space to the few pathogens that could harm us In short, having them in our homes can lead to a healthy home with few pathogens The challenge of how to do that is left an an exercise for the reader who will probably get some ideas after reading this book.Chapter One starts with the history o...This book is about the creatures living inside our homes from microbes, fungi, insects, to pets and what pets bring into our home Some topics I have read before, such as the hygiene hypothesis, our losing battle of killing bacteria with antibiotics, and the recently revived treatment of using probiotics to prevent bacteria infection A lot of topics are new to me For example, why the International Space Station smells like rotten apple and armpit Both the study of mycobacteria in the This book is about the creatures living inside our homes from microbes, fungi, insects, to pets and what pets bring into our home Some topics I have read before, such as the hygiene hypothesis, our losing battle of killing bacte...
- 10 November 2018 Rob Dunn
- Hardcover
- 336 pages
- 1541645766
- Rob Dunn
- Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live