Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Germs, Revised and Updated Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am always on the look out for books which explain scientific phenomenon in ways that junior high school, high school, and undergraduate students will enjoy. Books that tweak their interest so they will go on and read the boring textbooks that so many professors and educators feel are necessary as drudgework. Biddle's book is a nice change of pace from the usual textbooks on viruses, germs, etc. and is enough to get the kids interested. It is also very readable, cynical, and caustic which is right up my creek. He deftly explains our own responsibilities in the cycle of viral infections world-wide and brings up the fact that we are ignoring the problems in Third World countries, which will eventually hurt us. Only suggestion I have is next time include prions and mad cow disease/Jakob-Crutzfeld/kuru! Too bad he can't write about politicians this way... Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

"A Field Guide to Germs" is a mordantly funny series of one or two-page essays on the microscopic life forms that can make our lives nasty, brutish, and short. This book is organized like a field guide to birds, but instead of browsing through a description of the shy and spritely wren and its habitat, you will read about the not-so-shy and spritely 'Candida albicans', its description and habitat (the human mouth, baby bottoms, etc.). In fact it is in the 'Candida albicans' section where Wayne Biddle maintains that, "even the most squeaky-clean aesthete has a lot in common with rotten tree trunks."

The essays are in alphabetical order, so yeasts are jumbled together with other fungi, viruses, and bacteria. You may be able to read some of essays with a superior smirk on your face ("I don't think I have to worry about catching chikungunya or o'nyong-nyong."). This inevitably sets you up for a bruising in a following essay, in this case the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome."

Did you ever wonder where monosodium glutamate, aka MSG comes from? According to Biddle, this Chinese restaurant stalwart is a byproduct of 'corynebacterium glutamicum', a kissing cousin of the diptheria germ.

Let's hope you don't find a mutated version in your egg foo yung!

"A Field Guide to Germs" is very funny and easy to read - the very antithesis of a textbook - but it is not recommended for the weak-of-stomach or the hypochondriac.

This was an informative, interesting & often hilarious book. I have used it for several years as a resource while teaching about microbes at a science museum in Chicago. But don't get me wrong, this book is written to be enjoyed by non-science folk, as well as, the science teacher. It is easy to navigate through when used as a resource and fun to read cover to cover, like a book of well written essays.

It is a heartwarming book about the many viruses, bacteria, and pests that have made life for homo sapiens interesting for thousands of years. Herein you can read all about mumps, measles, and malaria (if you want to read about the pleasant diseases) or plague, anthrax, and rabies (if you want to read about the unpleasant ones). Each has a fascinating story to tell.

What can you do with this book? Well, you can read aloud the descriptions of gastrointestinal diseases at the dinner table. You can describe the diseases that cause hives with someone who is itchy. Or you can cheer up an old friend suffering from a disease by describing several diseases that are worse. This book is a barrel of laughs, I tell you. Get yours today.

From adenovirus to zika fever, the pantheon of germs is discussed here in an informative and fun manner. Biddle focuses especially on historical aspects and classic anecdotes (like the one about the Plague-infested corpses being catapulted over city walls as an early form of biological warfare). We get a lot on where the germs were first discovered, and what part of the world they are ravaging today. The book is illustrated with classic pictures from days of old, such as the cartoon which makes fun of Jenner's cowpox/smallpox vaccine by showing people with cows coming out of every part of the body. We also get lots of horrid descriptions of the tortures that passed for medical treatment in the premodern age, i.e. bleeding, purgatives.

All your favorite diseases are here from the familiar to the obscure: AIDS, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Anthrax, various cold viruses, Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, Q Fever, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Polio, Staph, Strep and all your other disease friends jostle for your attention in this nice little book that will make a wonderful addition to the library of any pathology enthusiast.

I'm a professional microbiologist (and plague expert) and find this book to be succinct, accurate, and a pleasure to read. Sounds to me like the reviewer from Brooklyn might have a competing volume to sell. I've recommended this work and its previous edition for years to my students and colleagues. It's a rare example of science writing that is both informative and fun.

The guide begins with adenoviruses and ends with zika fever, an exotic African affliction. In between those two are 71 eclectic essays about bacteria, viruses, fungi and a few other microorganisms of interest. With literally millions of topics from which to choose, how did Biddle select these chosen few? He tells us in the introduction that he used prevalence, power, and worry factor to narrow the field from the billions of potential organisms. Zika fever is included because he needed a "z".
In the sometimes laborious introduction (laborious because the reader is impatient to dig into the main course) the author philosophizes about the doctor/patient relationship, musing how just seeing a doctor can be palliative. Another thought, introduced here and repeated in subsequent essays, is the tendency of epidemics to affect the poor disproportionately, though as the reader will learn many of our buggy companions prey on us humans indiscriminately. Like a tour guide giving preparatory instructions, Biddle defines for the reader terms like germs, pathogens, antibiotics and mutagens.
After being advised to put away the disinfectant soaps, and turn off the television news, we fasten our seatbelts for an incredible ride on a slow moving train observing more than we can possible retain or remember. Then again, as Biddle reminds us, "Even a little information is better than zip."

Ever fall asleep reading a science textbook? Just looking at the cover knocks me out. This book not only holds the reader's rapt attention, but it also amuses, entertains, and teaches along the way. The author uses humor, understatement and mildly shocking irreverence to keep the text lively and the anticipatory reader alert. With thoughtful foresight the author's essays are mostly only one or two pages in length. Longer essays might get too wordy, too complicated, and too technical and jargon laden. Conversely the short chapters mean more topics can be covered, a glut of riches that can dull and inhibit the memory.

I like that the author, a Johns Hopkins University faculty member, includes the etymologies and origins of most disease names. He also frames the diseases with a historical perspective that's both fascinating and illuminating.

This is an excellent work which diarizes practically every
major germ imaginable. The author depicts how physicians
dressed in special garb to guard against the bubonic plague
throughout the centuries following the 1300s. The work describes
various acute respiratory diseases impacting the tonsils and
adenoids. Today, there is a lowered risk of Anthrax
infestation due to considerable advances in the medicinal arts.
Lyme disease is still a concern in the Northeastern, USA.
Approximately 15-30% of ticks are infected and 1-3% of
people bitten by ticks become infected with Lyme disease.
Cholera is a disease which manifests itself in a dirty
environment of water or food contamination. The hantavirus
is carried by mice and rats which contaminate the air by
breathing common air and spreading disease through droppings,
urine and saliva. This book could be very helpful in identifying
a complicated disease process early enough so that effective
strategies could be formulated and implemented.
This work would be beneficial to a wide constituency of readers
including medical personnel, parents, teachers, public
administrators, rangers and any public service employee.

For witty and informative science writing on a scary topic, you can't beat this little book. This entertaining as well as very informative little guide is about all the nasty little bugs that feed on us humans, written in a darkly humorous and even satirical style. You wouldn't think that a writer could make so many nasty diseases entertaining and even fun to read about, but Biddle has managed it in this great little book.

Besides the usual tropical diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness, there are essays on things you've never heard of, and after reading about them, probably won't want to hear about ever again, such as Kala Azar, o-nyong-nyong, shigella (also known as dysentery), schistosomiasis, and many others.

Biddle also is adept at turning a phrase. For example, here is how he describes malaria: "The life cycle of the malaria trypanosome is one of nature's darksome wonders." A reviewer here mentioned another good one. Writing about the microbial fungus, candida albicans, he says "Even the most squeeky clean athlete has a lot in common with a rotten tree trunk."

The book consists of short essays, usually a page or two in length, on the natural history and pathology of bacteria, viruses and microbial disease-causing and other parasitic organisms. Although I was a biology major in college and took courses in microbiology and even virology, I still found this to be an interesting and informative book despite it's being aimed at the general reader. In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable pieces of science writing I've ever come across by chance.

This book is well worth your time and money, although it's certain to turn you into a hypochondriac. At the very least, you'll never want to set foot in the tropics or outside the borders of the U.S., with its 5-star sewage and plumbing, ever again.

I've read only a few of the germ chapters described in this text and chose to read no more after encountering some blatantly incorrect information. For instance, with Rabies, the author states humans can only contract the disease if bitten by a rabid animal. Not true. Infection can be transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal or another human by contacting saliva with an open wound or mucus membrane. The author also states that humans are a dead end for the virus because we can't infect others. Absolutely not true. Visit a hospital with a rabies patient and you'll likely get a very different opinion as to the danger of the virus spreading.

Overall, the information felt unverified and dashed off. Making this a primer for some I suppose but hardly a definitive much less accurate work.