Life at Small Scale: The Behavior of Microbes (Scientific American Library)

In Life at Small Scale, noted biophysicist David B. Dusenbery describes how microbes obtain and use information from their environments to meet the fundamental challenges all organisms face - getting food, avoiding predators and competitors, and dispersing progeny. As Dusenbery demonstrates, these organisms are hardly as simple as is often presumed. Despite their size (or rather because of it), microbes develop some surprisingly complex behaviors, all in response to the physical demands of the worlds they inhabit. Thus the pages of this captivating, richly illustrated volume are filled with descriptions of organisms that have devised remarkably sophisticated, often bizarre ways of moving, navigating, communicating, eating, resisting enemies, besting rivals, and reproducing.
From fungi that launch their spores as projectiles, to "magnetic" bacteria that align like compass needles with the Earth's magnetic field, to the microbes that disperse when we sneeze, Life at Small Scale introduces an intriguing cast of characters, exploring their lives and environments in exquisite detail. It also shows how knowledge gained from the study of microbes helps us understand life on human and global scales as well. Here then is definite proof: there is more to life than what meets the eye.

David R. Dusenbery, is a professor of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.