Never home alone

from microbes to millipedes, camel crickets, and honeybees, the natural history of where we live

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Rob R. Dunn: Never home alone (2018)

323 pages

English language

Published Nov. 17, 2018

ISBN:
978-1-5416-4576-9
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OCLC Number:
1028213103

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4 stars (5 reviews)

1 edition

On the creatures that share our homes for the better.

4 stars

A fascinating book on the bacteria, fungus, arthropods, etc. that inhabit our homes and also on us. At first glance, this might look bad and your first though is how to get rid of them. But as the author shows, this is the wrong reaction. Instead, most of those inhabitants are usually harmless and are actually helpful to us as they inhabit living spaces and help deny that space to the few pathogens that could harm us. In short, having them in our homes can lead to a healthy home with few pathogens. The challenge of how to do that is left an an exercise for the reader who will probably get some ideas after reading this book.

Chapter One starts with the history of observations in microscopic life done by Antony van Leeuwenhoek. He uses his microscope to look at anything around him but it was when he was …

Subjects

  • Natural history
  • Biology
  • Popular works