Synopses & Reviews
This is a lively and often amusing book about our everyday interactions with microbes, the most common and most unavoidable kinds of life on earth-life that is not only all around us, but even on and in us. It reveals some of the extraordinary things scientists now know about these most ordinary companions.
To varying degrees we all fear germs, but the scientific basis for this fear is not always so firm. How many people a year die from food-borne streptococcus infection? Which pet is more likely to give you a serious illness, a cat or a turtle? What's the best way to prevent a cold (and no nonsense about vitamin C and avoiding going out in the cold with wet hair, please)? Which is a greater threat to health, botulism poisoning or exploding natural gas? You probably have some ideas about these things, but are you quite sure you're right? Where the Germs Are will explain, with a few surprises along the way.
You'll learn, for example, that your nice clean kitchen is a more likely source of illness than your bathroom; that fast-food restaurants are less contaminated with E. coli than fancier table-service establishments; that your luxurious daily bath or shower is doing almost nothing for your hygiene; that a certain bacterium can make you sick even after it's been boiled to death; and that one California scientist found the cure for smelly socks by creating cloth that kills germs.
If you're looking for information about germs, there is no shortage of people willing to tell you everything they think they know. Just ask your well-meaning friends or turn on the local TV news. Or go online for chat rooms replete with terror-filled half-truths, rumors, and bad advice about everything from raw chicken to hepatitis B vaccinations. And, of course, there are advertisers eager to exploit the slightest microbial anxiety by selling you everything from antibacterial earplugs to antibacterial chopsticks (really). Where the Germs Are puts a roadblock in their way by providing reliable, witty, and readable information about how to live with the germs that, like it or not, are our constant companions wherever we go and whatever we do.
Review
"Bakalar explains where the enemy is lurking and how to defeat it....His excellent chapter on childhood diseases and vaccines should be required reading for parents, and teenagers should be plunked down in a chair with the chapter on sexually transmitted diseases....His writing is witty, and he gives all the details of germs and illnesses without medical school jargon." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
"'Dirty! Don't touch! Yuck! Feh! You don't know where it's been!' These admonitions ring in our ears-for some of us our earliest memories of parental exhortation, for others the indelible mark of our deepest fears. Germs, as we know, are everywhere, lying in wait to attack the inadequately vigilant or insufficiently armed, gangs of serial killers on a random search for their next victim. We do not mock. Well, maybe we mock a little, but in fact, mother (or father) does sometimes know best-some germs can be very nasty invaders indeed. Yet we live in a world of microbes-some dreadful, some harmless, some essential to our continued life on earth. Knowing which to avoid, which to eliminate, and which just to live happily with can turn fearful warnings into reasoned discourse, and trembling terror into intelligent action."
--From the Preface
What do microbes have to do with your pets, your kids, your supermarket, your laundry, your sex life, your vacation at the beach, and your dinner plans for Saturday night? Plenty, as it turns out, and you'll learn all about it in Where the Germs Are.
This doesn't mean you have to panic, run out and buy every one of the more than 700 antibacterial products now on the market, dress in surgical scrubs, or live in a plastic bubble. In fact, most of the germs we live with are harmless, and some are positively delightful-like the ones that make grapes into wine, give yogurt its tang and cheeses their multitude of flavors, and lend sourdough bread its satisfying bite and aroma. But of course there are a nasty few that it would be good to avoid, and avoiding them means knowing something of the way they behave. Where the Germs Are is an intelligent, well-informed, scientifically accurate, and often delightfully funny guide to microbe country. Why not stop by for a spell-after all, you're already there.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-254) and index.
Synopsis
A guided tour through the strange and sometimes dangerous microscopic world
Germs are everywhere--in our intestines and on our skin as well as on kitchen counters, public toilets, doorknobs, and just about everything else. Why are there so many microorganisms? Which ones are dangerous? And how can we avoid the ones that will make us sick? This entertaining and informative book provides the answers. Profiling a rogue's gallery of harmful germs--from the influenza virus, salmonella, and herpes to hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HIV--as well as helpful microbes (we actually need E. Coli and other bacteria for proper digestion), the book reveals how different germs interact with the human body and what happens when they do.
Nicholas Bakalar (New York, NY) is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Hepatitis A to G and Wiping Out Head Lice.
Synopsis
A guided tour through the strange and sometimes dangerous microscopic world
Germs are everywhere--in our intestines and on our skin as well as on kitchen counters, public toilets, doorknobs, and just about everything else. Why are there so many microorganisms? Which ones are dangerous? And how can we avoid the ones that will make us sick? This entertaining and informative book provides the answers. Profiling a rogue's gallery of harmful germs--from the influenza virus, salmonella, and herpes to hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HIV--as well as helpful microbes (we actually need E. Coli and other bacteria for proper digestion), the book reveals how different germs interact with the human body and what happens when they do.
Nicholas Bakalar (New York, NY) is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Hepatitis A to G and Wiping Out Head Lice.
About the Author
Nicholas Bakalar is a New Yorkbased writer and book editor. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Understanding Teenage Depression, Hepatitis A to G, Wiping Out Head Lice, and AIDS and People with Severe Mental Illness.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
1. Microbes: An Introduction.
2. Hungry? Let's Eat: The Contaminated Kitchen.
3. Toilet Training: Washing Hands Is the Best Revenge.
4. Whiter Whites and Brighter Colors: Healthy Laundry.
5. Clean Up That Room: Kids and Microbes.
6. What Love's Got to Do with It: Microbes and Your Sex Life.
7. Wild Kingdom: Pets and Their Germs.
8. Up Your Nose: The Flu and the Cold.
9. Bottled or Tap: Water, and What's in It.
10. Fresh Air and Sunshine: Outdoor Fun with Microbes.
11. Paint the Town Red: Germs in Public Places.
12. The Antiseptic Supermarket: Products That Do Something, Products That Do Nothing, and Products That Actually Do Harm.
Glossary.
Notes.
Index.