This is a fascinating look into the microscopic world of bacteria, presented in a readable format by microbiologist Anne Maczulak. If you know little about bacteria or have the idea that they are mostly bad creatures, reading this book will open your eyes to some startling facts.
For instance, bacteria have evolved right along with humans (and all other animals) and are more often beneficial to us than they are detrimental. In fact, some scientists believe that the mitochondria that power human cells were originally bacteria that formed a symbiotic relationship with humans and evolved to become part of the grand system that powers our lives.
Even if you are already familiar with the basic facts about bacteria, Maczulak will still serve up some surprises. She offers some great anecdotes, such as this one from WW II: During the First World War, a typhus epidemic in Eastern Europe wiped out thousands of people, both civilians and soldiers. When the Second World War came about, many Germans remembered the earlier epidemic and the German army was therefore scared of invading a small town in Poland that appeared to be in the throes of a typhus outbreak. Skeptical of the isolated typhus outbreak, the Germans forced town residents to undergo medical exams and, sure enough, their blood samples showed typhus antibodies, indicating that they had indeed been exposed to the disease. So the Germans avoided the little town and its residents, many of them Jews, were spared enslavement and almost certain death in the Nazi concentration camps. It turned out that two clever doctors had injected the town residents with a bacterium that resembled that of typhus but was actually not lethal to humans. This ersatz “vaccine” caused typhus antibodies to appear in the bloodstreams of those who were “innocculated,” providing convincing, although false, evidence of a typhus outbreak.
There are other good stories and interesting facts throughout this rather short volume, which I recommend to readers who like medical mysteries and engaging science texts.
Reviewed by Bonnie McEwan