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This digital document is an article from World of Microbiology and Immunology, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1119 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the concepts, theories, discoveries, and pioneers in microbiology and immunology, using a mix of traditional academic and topical articles, this title addresses current ethical, legal, and social issues with special emphasis given to biological warfare and terrorism. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Microbiology," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Microbiology in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Microbiology when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Microbiology, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Heritage Science is currently emerging as a discipline and this book forms a comprehensive volume that addresses key topical areas of heritage science and discusses the threats to a wide range of heritage materials and monuments by biological and chemical agents of decay. It provides up-to-date information on subjects covering the component field of heritage microbiology, molecular and chemical analytical techniques, and the mechanisms of degradation and deterioration of historic ships and buildings. Extensive emphasis is placed on case studies and there is a valuable section on historic ships covering the preservation of HMS Victory, Brunel’s ss Great Britain, the Vasa and the Mary Rose. This book provides an indispensable guide and reference source for those working in all areas of historical conservation, biodeterioration, microbiology and materials science.

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For years, toxoplasmosis has been known as disease mostly affecting newborns. Since immunocompromised patients (AIDS) present a high risk of reactivation of chronic toxoplasmosis this parasitic disease has gained increasing interest. Besides presenting clinical and therapeutical concepts, this volume provides current knowledge about genetics and immunology of T. gondii and the interaction with its 'host'. Since in vivo and in vitro models of toxoplasmosis exist, and genetic manipulation has become possible, this protozoan parasite has recently been accepted as a model for understanding the pathogenesis and persistance of other intracellular parasites. The articles of the book compromise both reviewing current concepts and reporting on yet unpublished results of leading scientists in this field. ... Read more

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Ever since we started huddling together in communities, the story of human history has been inextricably entwined with the story of microbes. They have evolved and spread amongst us, shaping our culture through infection, disease, and pandemic. At the same time, our changing human culture has itself influenced the evolutionary path of microbes. Dorothy H. Crawford here shows that one cannot be truly understood without the other. 

Customer Reviews (5)

"Deadly Companions" review
Dorothy H. Crawford's "Dealy Companions" is a facinating read for anyone interested in microbiology or history. The book could easily be used as a supplement for a introductory microbiology course, however the non-student may find Crawford's style somewhat dry and sober, as she tends to downplay some of the most facinating subject matter and dissapointingly barrows many ideas and tables from Jared Diamond's work. Specifically the beginning of chapter 5, which seems almost verbatum from "Guns, Germs and Steel." While the first three chapters are full of imagery by the time you get through chapters four, five and six it feels as though Crawford has abandoned the storytelling. In spite of being somewhat boring in the middle, Crawford's work has several redeeming qualities. Crawford is not afraid to challenge the reader to comptenplate big ideas, such as our intimate and complex relationship with microbes that both help us and hurt us.
Refreshingly Crawford does not attempt to incite the reader in a war against microbes as many authors on the subject do, but presents an elegant argument for accepting our shared past and future.Crawford guides the reader through our co evolution with "deadly companions" from the beginning of time to the present leaving the reader with both a sense of dread and serenity, and certinly a great deal of respect for microbes. The opening chapter "How It All Began" is espcially inspired. Crawford paints a vivid picture of the emergence of microorganisms and somehow manages to pack 4.6 billion years of evolution into an enjoyable and readable narrative.Crawford's book is a fairly easy read and well worth slogging through a few boring parts in the middle for the sense of worder you will be left with after reading this eye-opening work.

More Zicam, Please!
After reading Deadly Companions I feel like I should be bathing in that germ killing gel that everybody carries in their pocket or purse.And after I meet somebody new, or who has recently traveled, I have this sudden urge to wash my hands, face, and take more Zicam.Good job telling us how we developed alongside microbes; how they impacted our development in useful and detrimental ways.But she seems to have written hastily.This could have been fleshed out a bit better, reaching a wider audience, if only she had taken her time and added more history and storytelling to the too short chapters.Not a book I would recommend to my college students.Perhaps something high-schoolers should read as part of biology class.A much better book to read is Influenza! about the 1918 Spanish Flu.

Our Longstanding War Against Microbes
In Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History, Dr. Dorothy Crawford tells the tale of how microbes have impacted human society throughout the ages. She begins with a basic description of the life cycle of bacteria and viruses and then proceeds to discuss the methods of transmission to the early hunter-gatherer societies. From there, she traces the evolution of microbes in conjunction with the growth of human civilization. Dr. Crawford's main purpose in this investigation is to evaluate mankind's future in relation to the microbes that have plagued us for centuries. While history has shown man fighting desperately to survive, modern technology has given us the tools to alter this war. However, even tools such as antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and vaccines have, on occasion, been rendered ineffective as microbes evolve and mutate far faster than we do. With that in mind, Dr. Crawford proposes that we find a solution in which we live in harmony with, rather than at odds to, the multitude of microbes.
Structurally, Dr. Crawford progresses chronologically starting with the infection of hunter-gatherers by malaria and ending with the recent epidemics of SARS and H5N1 Avian Flu. During each era of history, certain microbes were more prevalent and Dr. Crawford highlights these microbes in their historical context.
I would highly recommend Deadly Companions to all readers. While the subject matter may seem to be quite "academic," Dr. Crawford does an excellent job of formatting the material for the general audience while still remaining objective and factual and captivating the mind through the last page.

A light look into deadly microbes
First, I would like to issue forth that I am giving this book 5 stars as it was a very good read (if one can tolerate an academic book), delving into both the historical and scientific side of our deadly friends. I do have problems with the book, the main point being that it was too short. Judging by the cover, I thought it would delve more into the plague doctors of the 17th century and into some of the medieval lore surrounding plagues. This was not so, as it took a very broad look at it, spanning over several millennium, only lightly touch the plague doctors, as well as other topics. It should be mentioned that, for the most part, it was a look at how these disease infected and affected Europeans and N. Americans, however she did get into the very depressing downfall of the great civilizations of South America, with some detail.

I cannot hold shortness against the book as it is not meant to delve too deeply into any one topic and is designed to cover a wide range of issues, which it did very well, and giving the reader a tantalizing taste into this strange history. I found it a quick read (but not exactly light), and it did make me sad when I learned just how severe many of these diseases were, that I only knew by name.

All in all, this is a fine book and worthy of anyone reading it that holds an interest in medicine, history, or both (as I do). Enjoy!

Our Unwinnable War
Bacteria have a bad reputation.We think of them as causing illness, and that's correct, of course, but overwhelmingly they do not cause us harm.Without them, indeed, we could not digest our food, and elements could not be recycled into the environment.They have been performing this sort of vital service for around 600 million years.There are a million or so microbes we know about, and of them, only 1,415 are known to cause disease in humans, with the rest steadily chugging away to keep the world in balance.Those pathogenic ones are the main subject in _Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History_ (Oxford University Press) by Dorothy H. Crawford.A microbiologist, Crawford has written plenty of scientific papers, but here (as in a previous book about viruses) she writes for a popular audience to show how microbes, especially the ones that bother and kill us, have affected the humans that are interlopers in their world.We must never forget that most microbes are our companions and are not deadly, and that we live in a mutually beneficial partnership with millions of them. But it is their world: "We relative newcomers to the planet," ominously writes Crawford, "emerge from the safe environment of our mother's womb pristine, untouched by the infectious microbes, but within hours our bodies are colonised by swarms of them, all intent on living off this new food source."

Microbes don't mean to hurt us, of course, and despite the upsurge of religious feeling that accompanies any plague, there is no reason to think that they are doing anything but their natural cycles without any supernatural tinkering to deliver lessons to afflicted humans.The great problem with infective microbes is that they can change faster than we can.Resistance to the antibiotics we have had for only a few decadesis merely the most recent manifestation of their evolutionary adaptability, and there is no reason to think that any new generation of antibiotics is going to change this pattern.Crawford shows how different microbes afflicted us when we were hunter gatherers than did so when we changed to living in farming communities.Diseases have changed history.The ruler Crawford mentions that seems to have been most affected by them was Napoleon.He wanted to extend his empire into the New World, but mosquito-borne yellow fever decimated the troops within the Caribbean, and prevented his plan to move on to New Orleans and points north.It was not just the cold and starvation that kept Napoleon's troops from taking Russia.Louse-borne typhus took its toll, and without it, many historians think Napoleon could have gone on to conquer Europe.

Crawford takes up bubonic plague, the potato blight fungus, cholera, smallpox and many more, explaining the natural cycle of each microbe, its vectors (mosquitoes, fleas, lice) and its reservoirs in the wild (snails, birds, cattle).It isn't all biology; Crawford points out that _the_ major cause of microbe-related deaths is poverty, with a hugely disproportionate toll on poorer nations.The science she writes about, all with clarity and enthusiasm, is something new, especially compared to how long we have been going about with these microbial companions.Dealing with diseases scientifically has been regarded as impious; she quotes a 1722 sermon railing against smallpox vaccination "... because inoculation opposes the will of God, who sends disease (including smallpox) either to try our faith or to punish us for our sins."Science, however, is not going to keep us out of trouble; we have headlines these days about microbes that are resistant to our miracle drugs, and our own misuse of drugs against tuberculosis has resulted not in "multiply drug resistant" TB, but in "extensively drug resistant" TB, with "completely drug resistant" TB looming in the future.Even if we were to invent the superdrug researchers jokingly call "gorillacillin", it would kill off our helper microbes as well as the villains, and history shows that even such a drug would be overcome by resistance eventually.It isn't hopeless, and Crawford has written a sobering but not a pessimistic book.We have won battles, and that's something to be proud of.But we will have to content ourselves with winning battles, for we will never win the war.
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This digital document is an article from Dictionary of American History, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1708 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information. ... Read more

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Cattle Plague: A History is the most comprehensivegeneral study of the history of cattle plague or rinderpest yetattempted, of which there has not been a book in English since 1866.With its stranglehold on the economy of Europe until the later 19thcentury, rinderpest has been the most neglected study in history. Themost virulent and dreaded animal disease to affect Europe and Asiafrom ancient times with up to 95 percent mortality of affected cattle;in the 18th century it is estimated to have carried off more than 200million head of cattle in Europe, exclusive of Siberia and Tartary.Germany alone lost 28 million between 1711 and 1865, 3 in every 4animals dying. Following its introduction into Britain in 1745, thelosses in 1745-57 were estimated at in excess of half a million head.Its introduction in 1865 with a dozen oxen led to the death, includingthose which were slaughtered, of 278,943 animals, some estimatesputting the loss as high as 420,000, representing 7 per cent of thenational herd; according to some affecting livestock farming and themeat trade for the next 25 years. It was responsible for a majorpanzootic in Africa at the turn of the 19th century, devastatingdomestic and wild animals alike and affecting the ecology of Africa tothe present. Confined today to one known remaining focus in Africa,the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations hopes toeradicate this disease entirely by 2010, which if successful will bethe first animal disease to be eradicated from the world (and thesecond disease after smallpox) and would be one of the greatestachievements ever in veterinary science. Cattle Plague: A History is divided into five sections, dealingwith the nature of the virus, followed by a chronological history ofits occurrence in Europe from the Roman Empire to the final 20thcentury outbreaks; then administrative control measures throughlegislation, the principal players from the 18th century, followed byan analysis of some effects, political, economic and social. Thenfollows attempts at cure from earliest times encompassing superstitionand witchcraft, largely Roman methods persisting until the 19thcentury; the search for a cure through inoculation and the finalbreakthrough in Africa at the end of the 19th century. The lastsection covers the disease in Asia and Africa. Appendices coverregulations now in force to control the disease as well as historicalinstructions, decrees and statutes dating from 1745-1878. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Reveiw taken from Australian Veterinary History Record
This book is most undoubtedly the most exhaustive historical and contemporary account of cattle plauge written to date. It provides an epidemiological account of this historic disease from the earliest possible times to the situation as it occurs today. The book deserves a place in any collection or library concerned with infectious diseases and should be read by all those interested in history and how livestock and livestock diseases have shaped our society. Review by Martyn Jeggo ... Read more

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History of Modern Biotechnology, devided into two volumes (69 and 70), is devoted to the developments in different countries. A.L. Demain, A. Fang: The Natural Functions of Secondary Metabolites.- T. Beppu: Development of Applied Microbiology to Modern Biotechnology in Japan.- H. Kumagai: Microbial Production of Amino Acids in Japan.- T.K. Ghose, V.S. Bisaria: Development of Biotechnology in India.- M. Roehr: History of Biotechnology in Austria.- J. Hollo, U.P. Kralovánszky: Biotechnology in Hungary.- A. Fiechter: Biotechnology in Switzerland and a Glance at Germany. ... Read more

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This digital document is a journal article from Studies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Thomas Kuhn had little to say about scientific change in biological science, and biologists are ambivalent about how applicable his framework is for their disciplines. We apply Kuhn's account of paradigm change to evolutionary microbiology, where key Darwinian tenets are being challenged by two decades of findings from molecular phylogenetics. The chief culprit is lateral gene transfer, which undermines the role of vertical descent and the representation of evolutionary history as a tree of life. To assess Kuhn's relevance to this controversy, we add a social analysis of the scientists involved to the historical and philosophical debates. We conclude that while Kuhn's account may capture aspects of the pattern (or outcome) of an episode of scientific change, he has little to say about how the process of generating new understandings is occurring in evolutionary microbiology. Once Kuhn's application is limited to that of an initial investigative probe into how scientific problem-solving occurs, his disciplinary scope becomes broader. ... Read more

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Measles virus, one of the most contagious of all human viruses, has been largely contained by the development and use of a vaccine that was introduced 50 years ago. These two volumes were timed to honor the introduction of the vaccine and to record the enormous advancements made in understanding the molecular and cell biology, pathogenesis, and control of this infectious disease. Where vaccine has been effectively delivered, endemic measles virus transmission has been eliminated. However, difficulties in vaccine delivery, lack of health care support and objection to vaccination in some communities continue to result in nearly 40 million cases and over 300,000 deaths per year from measles.

By itself measles virus infection has and still provides some of the most interesting phenomena in biology. Following infection of dendritic cells, measles virus causes a profound suppression of the host’s immune response that lasts a number of months after apparent recovery from infection. Indeed, measles virus was the first virus to be associated with immunosuppression with many of the manifestations to be observed one hundred years later with HIV infection. Measles is also associated with development of both post-infectious encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune demyelinating disease, and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder. How measles virus infects cells, spreads to various tissues and causes disease, as well as the role of the immune response, generation of new vaccines, and use as a vector for gene delivery are topics covered in these two volumes.

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This digital document is an article from World of Microbiology and Immunology, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 957 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the concepts, theories, discoveries, and pioneers in microbiology and immunology, using a mix of traditional academic and topical articles, this title addresses current ethical, legal, and social issues with special emphasis given to biological warfare and terrorism. ... Read more

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Written by leading experts in the field, thiscomprehensive, balanced introduction to soil microbiology captures the rapidadvances in both the fundamental knowledge and potential applications of soilmicrobiology.The book includes coverage of habitats andorganisms, microbiology-mediated transformation, and applied environmentaltopics. Carefully edited to ensure a uniform style and consistent usage ofterminology, it helps readers make the transition from traditionalintroductory, single-authored books to typical multi-authored scientifictreatises. To keep current, they will consult these treatises. For anyone interested in environmental biology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great book for soil microbe lovers.
I am a student taking the soil microbiology course. At first I wondered to get this book or not, giving that having this book is an option for us. So I weighed the advantages and disadvantages of having it. Initially what kept me from buying it early was the price but seeing that I may require it if I am to have any hope of passing our first exam (not to mention the course). needless to say, thanks to this book, I passed my first exam with flying colors. Now then, this book is great, it comes with certain calculations and formulas on the front and back covers such as temperature; converting celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa so you won't have to go online or scratch your head to remember it. For those of you who took soil science and forget some certain things about soil. This book will definitely jog your memory. for fungi lovers it has a section on fungi and does a good job on covering that topic. Downside that it is expensive but it's advantages weigh its drawbacks. Another book to add to my collection and I'm definitely not selling this one once I'm done with the course.

Nice text book
This book includes what we need to know as students of the soil fields. It explains everything in an extraordinarily easy way (not to common when it comes to complicated biochemical processes). I got it through Amazon directly, and I appreciate they did a great job with packing.

very in depth
Its a good book, easy to read but the chapter cover a lot of material in one chapter.

Great!
I took one basic biology course in college and have never taken a chemestry class, so parts of the book were over my head. However, the book was everything I had hoped, covering a number of topics at a level I could easily grasp. If you want to really understand the role of microbiology in plant growth and how it afffects the soil in so many ways, this is a great book.

very handy well written book
This book was recommended to me by my tutor at university and he was right good well written easy to use book on a complex subject. I still use it today and think its an essential in any soil or agricultural consultants library. ... Read more