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The Secret Lives of Earth's Smallest Creatures by J. Craig Venter (Hardback)
£25.00
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781472144171
Published:
08 Feb 2024
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
304 pages
Dimensions:
238x164x38mm
Weight:
0.560kgs
Author:
Dr Venter is best known for co-sequencing the first ever human genome. He later stunned the scientific world again by building from scratch the entire genome of an organism - Mycoplasma mycoides. He's currently working on the first major exploration of the microbiome of the planet. These microbes include bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa. This book covers a series of expeditions made over the last sixteen years, from Antarctica to Alaska, the Amazon Basin to the Black Sea, and the Golden Horn to volcanic vents near the Galapagos, with the aim of hunting down and identifying trillions of micro-organisms, fewer than one per cent of which had been studied before Dr Venter began this work in 2002.
'An epic travelogue, brimming with the excitement of discovery. With characteristic panache, Venter unveils the teeming array of bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotes that crowd our planet's oceans' - Siddhartha Mukherjee
'This page-turner gives . . . the thrill of seeing our planet's largest universe through the brilliant, intrepid eyes of the scientist who has done more than anyone to unlock the secrets of life' - Martine Rothblatt
'A tour de force . . . Venter has expanded biology's horizons. This book explores microbial life on a global scale, providing cutting-edge solutions to problems of environmental change' - Aristides Patrinos
'A ripping tale . . . to revolutionize our understanding of our bodies, the oceans, and the planet' - Jack Gilbert
'An exhilarating account of how creative science is accomplished' - Sir Richard J. Roberts
'[A] fascinating tour of Planet Microbe' - Bill McKibben
'Venter and Duncan expand our scope of what it means to be alive' - Jamie Metzl
'Inspiring ... change[s] our ideas of how biology is done' - Telegraph
Upon completing his historic work on the Human Genome Project in 2002, J. Craig Venter declared that he would sequence the genetic code of all life on earth. Thus began a fifteen-year quest to collect DNA from the world's oldest and most abundant form of life: microbes. Boarding the Sorcerer II, a 100-foot sailboat turned research vessel, Venter travelled over 65,000 miles around the globe to sample ocean water and the microscopic life within.
In this book, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan tell the remarkable story of these expeditions and of the momentous discoveries that ensued-of plant-like bacteria that get their energy from the sun, proteins that metabolize vast amounts of hydrogen, and microbes whose genes shield them from ultraviolet light. The result was a massive library of millions of unknown genes, thousands of unseen protein families, and new lineages of bacteria that revealed the unimaginable complexity of life on earth. Yet despite this exquisite diversity, Venter encountered sobering reminders of how human activity is disturbing the delicate microbial ecosystem that nurtures life on earth. In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop alternative sources of energy, food, and medicine that might ultimately avert our destruction.
A captivating story of exploration and discovery, this book restores microbes to their rightful place as crucial partners in our evolutionary past and guides to our future.
About the Author: J. Craig Venter is founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a non-profit research organisation. He is co-founder of the biotechnology companies Celera, Synthetic Genomics, and Human Longevity. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has received numerous public honours and scientific awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science.
| Number of pages | 304 |
|---|
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| First Item | 2 Items & Over | |
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| EU | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| USA & Canada | £30.00 | £50.00 |
| Rest of the World | £45.00 | £60.00 |
| Collect in Store | free | free |
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