Life's Engines : : How Microbes Made Earth Habitable / / Paul G. Falkowski.
The marvelous microbes that made life on Earth possible and support our very existenceFor almost four billion years, microbes had the primordial oceans all to themselves. The stewards of Earth, these organisms transformed the chemistry of our planet to make it habitable for plants, animals, and us....
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2023 English |
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Place / Publishing House: | Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2023] ©2023 |
Year of Publication: | 2023 |
Language: | English |
Series: | Princeton Science Library ;
137 |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (224 p.) :; 38 b/w illus. |
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Other title: | Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface to the Princeton Science Library Edition -- Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- CHAPTER 1 The Missing Microbes -- CHAPTER 2 Meet the Microbes -- CHAPTER 3 The World before Time -- CHAPTER 4 Life’s Little Engines -- CHAPTER 5 Supercharging the Engines -- CHAPTER 6 Protecting the Core Genes -- CHAPTER 7 Cell Mates -- CHAPTER 8 Supersizing in Wonderland -- CHAPTER 9 The Fragile Species -- CHAPTER 10 The Tinkerers -- CHAPTER 11 Microbes on Mars and Butterflies on Venus? -- Further Readings -- Index |
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Summary: | The marvelous microbes that made life on Earth possible and support our very existenceFor almost four billion years, microbes had the primordial oceans all to themselves. The stewards of Earth, these organisms transformed the chemistry of our planet to make it habitable for plants, animals, and us. Life's Engines takes readers deep into the microscopic world to explore how these marvelous creatures made life on Earth possible—and how human life today would cease to exist without them.Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built—and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.A vibrantly entertaining book about the microbes that support our very existence, Life's Engines will inspire wonder about these elegantly complex nanomachines that have driven life since its origin. It also issues a timely warning about the dangers of tinkering with that machinery to make it more "efficient" at meeting the ever-growing demands of humans in the coming century. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9780691247694 9783111319292 9783111318912 9783111319216 9783111318615 9783110749748 |
DOI: | 10.1515/9780691247694?locatt=mode:legacy |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Paul G. Falkowski. |