Carl Zimmer is one of those rare journalists that gets the science correct and writes a damn good book (or article).  Science writers have a difficult job.  They need to convey complex and detailed concepts to a lay person without diluting the subject too much but also not going over the head of the average reader.  At the same time he needs to entertain. Zimmer does it all. His previous works I read,  Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea and Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures,were both excellent reads and I recommended them on this blog.

Microcosm follows the books referenced above in terms of subject (biology and evolution) and in quality.  Microcosm is an excellent book.  Zimmer does a great job of bringing the world of biologists that study E.coli to the reader.

A book about e. coli may seem a bit strange.  I bet when Zimmer pitched this work to his agent there was a slight pause on the telephone.  But Zimmer picked a fascinating subject that is filled with incredible science and insight into how evolution works, organisms interact with their environment, and the possibility of adding more the theory of natural selection bringing to light mysteries that eluded evolutionary biologists.

Zimmer includes in his book a detailed history of the research that has taken place with this single celled bacteria and how some of the most fascinating work is has happened in the most recent decades. He focuses on understanding how e. coli’s genes turn on and off, how it reproduces, what it eats, how it lives, and how it survives in different environments helps us understand how genes are expressed in many other living organisms.

Zimmer’s writing allows him to purvey complicated and detailed biological information in clear prose that doesn’t loose any information nor does it “dumb down” that information.  Being this clear he was able to convey very detailed scientific terms and explanations in a way that is understandable to the lay person without being condescending or incomplete.  Zimmer has this knack of bringing science out of the lab with its dry scholarly papers filled with poor  writing and turning it into something that is accessible to the public.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading a great story of discovery.

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