Amazing

Brilliant narration and wonderfully insightful, challenging many theories, beliefs and practices. If you want to know the difference between fact and marketing hype this is a must listen.

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Totally amazing!

I'm about to start listening to it again. too many good bits that I need to hear again. I'll probably end up buying the book.

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Superbly woven stories that change our perspective

I now cannot see the world without seeing the microscopic world of microbes all around us.

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Science and Nature are far more fascinating than fiction

Sometimes you pick up a book and think "this looks interesting" and it turns out to be more than interesting.

The reading here tends to flow from chapter to chapter so at times it jars when you realise that a new subject had been started between two sentences that flow together. The content however is wonderful.

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Easy listening

From a students point of view this book is very helpful and insightful.
From a general interest point of view, it is fascinating.

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Microbes all around us

The microbiome is described in fascinating detail, across species & inside us humans too. A brilliant, gripping tale of a world within a world & the cutting edge discoveries that will take medicine in a whole new & unexpected direction. Totally enthralling. I’m going to read it again very soon as there is so much interesting detail to take in.

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Jaw-dropping journey through the microbiome

With a title borrowed from Walt Whitman, an author who is the science communicator's science communicator and a pangolin worn as a cummerbund, this book is off to a storming start. The subject is the growing field of the microbiome - the host of microbes, invisible to the naked eye, that inhabit animal bodies. All of us are teeming zoos of life, and we wouldn't be here without the help of our tiny co-habitants, who help us digest our food, fight off the bad microbes that threaten our health - the 'germs' that give all the others a bad name - and generally keep us ticking over. This much I knew before starting the book, but I spent much of the time with my jaw on the floor as more startling facts were revealed.They colonize the skin of squid. They enable single-celled organisms to form colonies. They are part of our immune system. There's no point in listing everything! Something new and fascinating round every corner in this book.

On the Audible version: I found this a bit difficult as a listen rather than a read - the subject matter is so dense that I would have liked to turn back to refer to something again. And there are several odd 'patches' in it where it sounds like the same voice is very obviously recording somewhere else!

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Fantastic listen with detailed and interesting information

A really great book. As a microbiology student I thoroughly enjoyed the depth and detail this book goes to, though it presents information in a way that it’s accessible to all

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Exceptional

Clear and well thought work, which clearly conveys the depth and breadth of research undertaken to write this. Funny, insightful & most importantly - intriguing! Can't help wanting to learn more!!!

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Fascinating, important look into microbes

This is complex, I'm not going to lie. At times some of the science went over my head as I wasn't concentrating. However, the idea that microbes live on all surfaces and beings like a planet and have such an important role in creating and even treating diseases is fascinating.

Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution, and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage. Great book for science nerds like me.

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