Liaisons of Life P
Books / Paperback
Books › Science › Life Sciences › Evolution
ISBN: 047144152X / Publisher: John Wiley &Sons, April 2002
Life, a competitive struggle? In the world of microbes, symbiosis, says Wakeford (a Ph.D. in biology), competes with Darwinian struggle as the engine of evolution. The new liaisonal perspective recognizes the centrality of microbes in all living systems, their inescapable connectivity to those systems, and the importance of maintaining liaisons with our microbial "neighbors and associates." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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A fascinating exploration of symbiosis at the microscopic level and its radical extension of DarwinismMicrobes have long been considered dangerous and disgusting-in short, "scum." But by forming mutually beneficial relationships with nearly every creature, be it alga with animals or zooplankton with zebrafish, microbes have in fact been innovative players in the evolutionary process. Now biologist and award-winning science writer Tom Wakeford shows us this extraordinary process at work. He takes us to such far-flung locales as underwater volcanoes, African termite mounds, the belly of a cow and even the gaps between our teeth, and there introduces us to a microscopic world at turns bizarre, seductive, and frightening, but ever responsible for advancing life in our macroscopic world. In doing so he also justifies the courage and vision of a series of scientists-from a young Beatrix Potter to Lynn Margulis-who were persecuted for believing evolution is as much a matter of interdependence and cooperation as it is great too-little-told tales of evolutionary science.
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