Thinking Small and Large

I began to read it casually and found that I couldn't stop ... The account of the way the world of living things actually works and of our disastrous interference in the processes that give our species its very existence is brilliantly convincing.

I began to read it casually and found that I couldn't stop ... The account of the way the world of living things actually works and of our disastrous interference in the processes that give our species its very existence is brilliantly convincing.

A powerful exploration of the machinery of life and the 'gigantic infinitesimal' world of the microorganisms essential for the survival of our ecosystem. In this beautifully written book, Forbes restores microbes to their rightful place in the history - and, importantly, the future - of our planet. A must for any science-savvy or science-curious reader .

A fascinating account of both the deep-time evolution of life on our planet and how microbes have moulded the world we live in. This is the gripping story of how the tiniest creatures can have the mightiest effects, and offer hope for solving some of the gravest problems of climate change today.

The book's intellectual range is impressive . The author synthesizes a vast, interdisciplinary literature, from geology and evolutionary biology to synthetic biology and space science, in a tone that's accessible without oversimplifying the underlying concepts . For readers unfamiliar with microbial ecology, it will be eye-open ing . For scientists, it offers a unifying narrative that connects disparate fields.

The use of poetry and poetics especially in the opening chapters greatly enlivens the subject of the small and invisible world of molecules, molecular machines, and microbes.

Once you see how microbes shape everything around (and within) us, you won't see the world the same way again.

Peter Forbes is a science writer and journalist writing mainly on life sciences and natural history. He read chemistry and worked for the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and in natural history publishing before becoming a freelance writer. He lives in London and teaches the Narrative Non-Fiction course at City St George's, University of London


His first full-length non-fiction book, The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book , a groundbreaking introduction to the new field of engineering and materials solutions inspired by nature, was longlisted for the Royal Society/Aventis Prize. He followed this with Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage , which won the Warwick Prize for Writing.