The Outer Reaches of Life

Since the dawn of life on Earth, the world has been gradually transformed by living things into a comfortable home for plants and animals, including human beings. But many harsh and seemingly inhospitable places remain. It is the inhabitants of such places, mainly invisible microbes, that reveal the remarkable potential and resilience of life itself. How do microbes survive, even flourish, in superheated water or supercooled brine, at enormous pressures, without air, amid poisons? And what part do, and did, they play in making the Earth hospitable? In this fascinating account, engagingly written for lay readers, one of the world's leading microbiologists tells of the diverse adjustments microbes have made to apparently impossible habitats.

Diversities of life among the microbes make up 18 generally lively essays by Postgate that--for the general reader--waver on the edge of opacity. Twenty-five years ago, Postgate wrote a well- received textbook, Microbes and Man, now in its third edition. Postgate edges towards chummy tales of the microbes, though his learnedness, however lightly worn, also rises up and may well cool the ardor of the more uninformed reader. He is not Lewis Thomas, or, simply, he is less entertaining than Thomas. He tells us why some microbes can flourish at high temperatures, ``some thriving at, and even above, the normal boiling point of water,'' while others cook like an egg. Readers will learn of the varieties of alcohol--ethanol (wines and spirits), methanol, pentanol, glycol (automobile anti-freeze), glycerol (glycerine), and so on; why ice formation is lethal to cells and how glycerol prevents it and allows for cold-storage of cells and organs needed for transplants. We also find how microbial life survives at the highest and lowest atmospheric pressures, including the deep-sea bottom, and how life of the terrestrial king might evolve into highly complex forms even on a massive planet like Jupiter with its strong gravity and high surface pressures. We learn about the biological effects of salt and what happens when salts dissolve in water. Although microbes die under certain kinds of stress, the products of bacterial cell division show a seeming immortality among microbes (and yeasts); microbes are sexless and reproduce by fission, so that a microbe that divides remains itself, is neither mother nor daughter. Lifts your head out of the muddle. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Science essayists usually write on natural phenomenon that are observable (animal behavior) or subjects that are widely reported, such as DNA. Postgate, author of the classic Microbes and Man (Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1992. 3d ed.) breaks this pattern by devoting an entire work to the smallest pieces of life: microbes. After an introduction, the remaining 17 sections cover individual topics (temperature, pressure, nutrients, and so forth) and that topic's effect on microbial life. Clearly written, the text makes connections between chapters. Evolution, the environment, and antibiotics are a few of the niches filled by Postgate's microbes. Recommended for all general science collections.
- Michael D. Cramer, Virginia Polytechnic & State Univ. Libs, Blacksburg
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.