Life at Small Scale

David B Dusenbery

ISBN 10: 0716750600 / ISBN 13: 9780716750604

Published by Scientific American Library, 1996

About this Item

Our world is swarming with invisible organisms - bacteria and fungi that affect their hosts and environments in diverse ways, from initiating processes in the production of penicillin, wine and cheese to causing devastating crop failures and deadly outbreaks of cholera.In Life at Small Scale, David B. Dusenbery takes readers into the mysterious microscopic world that these organisms inhabit. He investigates how they behave, and why, providing a fascinating look at the rules that govern their world, from the physics that allows them to move without legs or muscles to the different means of dispersal micro-organisms use.With rich illustrations and intriguing studies of microscopic creates, Life at Small Scale reveals the strange life that thrives unseen all around us - and within us.

Seller Inventory # CIN0716750600G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Life at Small Scale
• Publisher: Scientific American Library
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0716750600
• ISBN 13: 9780716750604
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

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