Having studied diet and behavior for forty years, I realized that I had ignored obesity. However, after eventually considering the topic, I found that the actions of both politicians and the food industry had been spectacularly unhelpful. Why are so many people allowed to suffer? If politicians and the food industry are ineffective, there is a third group that could engineer change: the general public. It is scandalous that so many have been condemned to an early death following decades of ill-health. Something needs to change.
There is a saying, “ For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” This view summarizes almost all attempts to control obesity. There has been a failure to acknowledge the multitude of risk factors for obesity and the large number of calories that need to be removed from the diet before obesity is beaten.
I am, therefore, always delighted when simple views concerning obesity are shown to be mistaken. A fascinating book describes how bacteria in the gut influence the tendency to be slim or obese. You learn that if you eat the right food, you will have 100 trillion friends to help you stay slim.
'The Diet Myth is fascinating, and now I'm obsessed with microbes!' Nigella Lawson
Why do most diets fail? Why does one person eat a certain meal and gain weight, while another eating the same meal loses pounds? Why, despite all the advice about what to eat, are we all still getting fatter?
The answers are much more surprising - and fascinating - than we've been led to believe. The key to health and weight loss lies not in the latest fad diet, nor even in the simple mantra of 'eat less, exercise more', but in the microbes already inside us.…
I have a confession: I became an award-winning science communicator for kids sort of by accident. Well, the science part wasn’t an accident… I just didn’t know what I was doing had a name: science communication. I only knew that I had questions! So I set out to approach my questions with facts, humor, empathy, and critical thinking; to interview professionals-in-the-field and to share what I learned from them with kids. For my germs book (I’m Trying To Love Germs), I spoke with professionals in the fields of virology, epidemiology, microbiology, and medicine, and read every kids' germ book I could get my hands on.
Inside Your Insides does a nice job of taking a journey through the body and exploring which microbes live at the stops along the way.
After a brief intro into the microbiome and a distinction between helpful (“Some Of Your Microbes Are Good Guys”) and harmful (“Some of Your Microbes Are Bad Guys”) little fellas, the book focuses on different areas of the body: skin, mouth, lungs, gut… and dives into information and anecdotes about the microbes that call that region home.
Playful germ-jokes and fun-facts dance along the edges of the pages and the book closes out with tips to treat your microbiome with care.
“Wherever you go, tiny hitchhikers tag along for the ride,” this intriguing illustrated nonfiction book begins. “The hitchhikers are actually microbes --- tiny living things so small that you need a microscope to see them. And every person carries around trillions and trillions of these critters.” Six of the most common “critters” that live in and on our bodies are introduced here: bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, protists and mites. Each one has its own preferred environment, and readers will be startled (and likely a little grossed out!) by the many places they live, including the hair follicles on our faces,…
Working with the natural world has long been my life’s compass. I have been dedicated to conservation, education, and management of terrestrial and marine ecosystems for my entire career. I strongly believe we must approach the crisis that we now live in with humor, joy, and devotion, and we must be able to fall in love with this world over and over again, even if it breaks our hearts. This is why I write, and this is how I live. I love reading science books that allow this connection, that lead me
into the complexities of why we must never stop feeling wonder at this
magnificent world.
This book is absolutely fascinating. This author makes me wish that I could take her classes. She provides the sweet release of wonder, the gloriousness of the deep sea, the alien, and the mysterious and the magical.
She walks us through the world of the unknown, the struggle of the scientist to try to understand something we can never truly know. She also shatters us with the many ways that we must watch this world disappear, even when we never really knew it existed in the first place. We get a tiny glimpse as humans into the Wild West that is the deep, and yet our impact reaches far beyond our knowledge. We are destroying something so rich and vast it’s akin to outer space.
Break my heart, but keep putting it back together.
The deep sea is the last, vast wilderness on the planet. For centuries, myth-makers and storytellers have concocted imaginary monsters of the deep, and now scientists are looking there to find bizarre, unknown species, chemicals to make new medicines, and to gain a greater understanding of how this world of ours works. With an average depth of 12,000 feet and chasms that plunge much deeper, it forms a frontier for new discoveries.
The Brilliant Abyss tells the story of our relationship with the deep sea - how we imagine, explore and exploit it. It captures the golden age of discovery…
I'm an author of books for young readers. These days, there’s nothing more important than having conversations about the Coronavirus disease. It can be hard for grown-ups to start a conversation about Covid with their kids. But they can read a book about the subject and invite the kids to respond to what they heard and saw. My book COVID-19 Helpers was the first place winner of the Emery Global Health Institute’s e-book contest back in May 2020. Through the pandemic, I’ve been reading and talking about the virus with kids from around the world. If you're interested in having me read one of my books to your school, clinic, or your daycare center feel free to get in touch.
This book encourages little ones to read along with a recurring refrain, “Don’t let your dragon spread germs!” The premise of this book is that children have to teach their pet dragons hygiene. In using this logic, the story puts the young characters in the book in the position of the teacher-caregivers. The illustrator, Andy Elkerton, did a great job with the dragons. Each dragon has its own personality and the illustrations are full of energy and motion. Those colorful, dynamic dragons are fun for kids to look at while a grown-up reads the text.
Your dragon loves to hug and high-five and shake hands and sing and blow bubbles and share happiness everywhere she goes. Dragons want to spread joy to everyone! But some of those actions are also spreading germs. It's time to wash your hands, mask up and teach your dragon how to share joy in a safe and healthy way. Author Julie Gassman uses rhyming text, relatable examples and a diverse cast of characters to teach readers about germs in the sixth book in the Do Not Take Your Dragon picture book series.
I have a confession: I became an award-winning science communicator for kids sort of by accident. Well, the science part wasn’t an accident… I just didn’t know what I was doing had a name: science communication. I only knew that I had questions! So I set out to approach my questions with facts, humor, empathy, and critical thinking; to interview professionals-in-the-field and to share what I learned from them with kids. For my germs book (I’m Trying To Love Germs), I spoke with professionals in the fields of virology, epidemiology, microbiology, and medicine, and read every kids' germ book I could get my hands on.
Germy Science calls itself “A Gross Science Book” and the icky, phlemy, booger & fart-filled illustrations do not disappoint!
The book does a really great job of giving a well-paced (and hilariously illustrated) history of our human understanding of microbes and medicine: from Ancient Greeks blaming the gods, to our first ventures into hand-washing and pasteurization. Early attempts at inoculation provide lots of gross examples, including 1600s China using ground-up smallpox scabs… eww… but also—wow!
The book even makes a thoughtful mention of Covid-19 in the section about plagues and pandemics—which is wisely titled “Germs That Changed History”.
This perfectly revolting — and perfectly timely! — introduction to germs from award-winning comedy writer Edward Kay will turn any kid into a master of microbes!
Children get up close and personal with germs (ew!) in this entertaining, thoroughly researched exploration of the science and history of these tiny, ubiquitous creatures. Heavy on the gross factor to keep readers engaged, the book covers what germs are, how we get sick, how the human immune system works and the best ways to stay healthy. There are intriguing stories about early attempts to fight disease (heard about corpse catapults? how about shaved…
My wife disagrees, but I find that reading about a topic helps to ease the trauma of dealing with it. I appreciate Pathogenesisbecause it puts recent events in context.
This book argues that mass outbreaks of disease have made our world, past and present. Yet, they seem to recede into memory just as suddenly as they appeared. I feel it now. It's a mistake to ignore the scars they leave on humanity. Needless to say, recent events should give us all much to consider. A strong central thesis and some memorable anecdotes make this a worthwhile, timely read.
A “gripping” (The Washington Post) account of how the major transformations in history—from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism—have been shaped not by humans but by germs
“Superbly written . . . Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman.”—The Times (U.K.)
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism…
I have a confession: I became an award-winning science communicator for kids sort of by accident. Well, the science part wasn’t an accident… I just didn’t know what I was doing had a name: science communication. I only knew that I had questions! So I set out to approach my questions with facts, humor, empathy, and critical thinking; to interview professionals-in-the-field and to share what I learned from them with kids. For my germs book (I’m Trying To Love Germs), I spoke with professionals in the fields of virology, epidemiology, microbiology, and medicine, and read every kids' germ book I could get my hands on.
As a kid, I would have carried It’s Catching with me everywhere, reading facts about our microbial world out loud to anyone who would listen.
Starting with an introduction to a disease detective—who just happens to be the author, a real-life (female!) science researcher—the book gives a perfectly concise intro to the teeny world of microbiology before branching out into specific players like viruses and bacteria.
My favorite section dives into “Great Germs”—the most common illnesses our bodies face on a global scale. It’s filled with super-interesting anecdotes covering things like the history of the disease, how it was named, how it spreads, or how to prevent it. Each pathogen even gets rated 1-10 on the “Danger-Meter!”
Don’t be afraid to delve into the good, bad, and sometimes truly ugly world of germs. Microbiologist Jennifer Gardy, who calls herself a disease detective, picks up her microscope to bring expert insight to the microbes that are all around us but are too small to see. Irreverent, playful, and contagious in all the best ways, It’s Catching discusses a range of germs and the diseases they cause, from the common cold to food poisoning to the Ebola virus. Young readers will be enticed and pretty grossed out while becoming immersed in information about pus, bacteria, DNA, genomes,…
I'm enchanted by ecology – how life on Earth is both a web and a seamless continuum. In my first book, Corpse, I explored the organisms that colonize the human body after death. In Good Germs, Bad Germs, I immersed myself in our symbiotic relationship with the ever-present bacteria that live in us and on us. I’m passionate about understanding how we evolved to survive in a bacterial world and how we must take the long-term view of surviving – and thriving – in their ever-present embrace. My joy has been in exploring the world of science and translating this joy into lay-accessible stories that entertain as well as educate.
I know I’m double dipping here with another of Carl’s books. I love how he takes one, ubiquitous micro-inhabitant of the human body and uses it to explore what it means to be alive and interconnected with the life in and around us. I love how Carl flips away our human perspective to “view” the word through the chemical-sensing molecules of a single-celled organism – E. coli. Superb, fun science writing.
A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels between E. coli's life and our own. And he describes how E. coli changes in real time, revealing billions of years of history encoded within its genome. E. coli is also the most engineered species on Earth, and as scientists retool this microbe to produce life-saving drugs and clean fuel,…
I first adopted a vegan diet for the animals and then shifted to a plant-based vegan "for my health" in my mid-20s. I felt fabulous for the next 10-15 years. Then, in my mid-30s, I suddenly developed severe and chronic GI symptoms. I was severely bloated, nauseous, and constipated, which didn't make sense given how much fiber I was eating. After diagnosis and treatment for H Pylori (a bacterial infection), I was left with a "broken belly" (severe dysbiosis). I've spent the last few years reading every book on gut health and hormones to learn how to heal myself since traditional medicine has failed me.
Best, most succinct, and comprehensive book I’ve read on the topic of gut health by far. It's also written in a friendly, conversational tone (not overly dry or academic). Things I like: The authors provide a specific daily fiber recommendation (29-35g minimum) for gut health; they discuss how antibiotics and antibiotic soap/cleaner affects microbes, the impacts of glycemic load and industrial flour, and most importantly: they provide evidence so the reader can draw their own conclusions as to what’s best for them diet-wise instead of using fear-mongering.
Note: This book is not "pure vegan" (the authors suggest dairy in some situations).
The groundbreaking science behind the surprising source of good health
Stanford University's Justin and Erica Sonnenburg are pioneers in the most exciting and potentially transformative field of human health and wellness, the study of the relationship between our bodies and the trillions of organisms representing thousands of species to which our bodies play host, the microbes we call the microbiota. The Sonnenburgs argue that the microbiota determines in no small part whether we're sick or healthy, fit or obese, sunny or moody-and that the microbiota has always been with us, coevolving with humans and entwining its functions with ours. They…
I have a confession: I became an award-winning science communicator for kids sort of by accident. Well, the science part wasn’t an accident… I just didn’t know what I was doing had a name: science communication. I only knew that I had questions! So I set out to approach my questions with facts, humor, empathy, and critical thinking; to interview professionals-in-the-field and to share what I learned from them with kids. For my germs book (I’m Trying To Love Germs), I spoke with professionals in the fields of virology, epidemiology, microbiology, and medicine, and read every kids' germ book I could get my hands on.
This is the 4th STEM picture book from the Fishman/Greenberg duo and every one of them is worth a read.
Up Your Nose does a great job helping younger readers connect the invisible world of microbes with things their grown-ups say: phrases like “Wash Your hands!”, “Take A Bath!” and more. Playful illustration showcases the different types of microorganisms that live in, on, and around us, and even shows us where they like to hide (spoiler alert: it’s kinda everywhere.)
I especially like the part about the barriers our body uses to keep germs at bay: stuff like our skin, tears, and even mucus!
What exactly are germs? And what do they do? The acclaimed and award-winning author and artist of A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars have created a timely—and funny!—introduction to germs and the human body’s natural response to the microscopic (sometimes) organisms. An informative and accessible choice for fans of Andrea Beatty’s Ada Twist, Scientist and Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes’s Loves Science series.
Did you know that there are quadrillions of germs in the world? And that hundreds of billions of germs may be in the room around you—and inside you as well?
Acclaimed creators Seth Fishman and Isabel Greenberg…
