Amid wars, failed revolutions and the shifting of frontiers, the bit-part players often have the best tales to tell - an astonishing, genre-blurring travelogue from Italian master Claudio Magris. In the tiny borderlands of Istria and Italy, from the forests of Monte Nevoso, to the hidden valleys of the Tyrol, to a Trieste café, Microcosms pieces together a mosaic of stories - comic, tragic, picaresque, nostalgic - from life's minor characters. Their worlds might be small, but they are far from minimalist: in them flashes the great, the meaningful, the unrepeatable significance of every existence.

Ecological Microcosms is a seminal work which reviews the expanding field of enclosed ecosystem research, and relates the results and models of microcosm studies to general concepts in ecology. Microcosms are miniaturized pieces of our biosphere, ranging from streams and lakes to terraria, agroecosystems, and waste systems. The study of these simplified ecosystems is providing provocative insights into ecological principles as well as issues of environmental management and global stability. The authors have used the well-known thermodynamic approach of H.T. Odum and numerous computer simulations. The book also includes an evaluation of alternative mesocosm approaches for the support of humans in space, as well as appendices to aid in the teaching of environmental concepts using student-created microcosms. Ecological Microcosms will be of interest to ecologists, environmental engineers, policy makers and environmental managers, space scientists, and educators. Robert J. Beyers is a Professor of Biology at the University of South Alabama. Howard T. Odum is Graduate Research Professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida, and was awarded, with Eugene Odum, the 1987 Crafoord Prize in the Biosciences.

Urban microcosms are small-scale communal spaces that are integral to, or integrated into, city life. Some, such as railway stations or department stores, are typically located in city centres. Others, such as parks, are less quintessentially metropolitan, whilst harbours or beaches are often located on the peripheries of cities or outside them altogether. All are part of a network of nodes establishing connections in and beyond the city. Together, they shape and inflect the infrastructure of modern life. By introducing the concept of urban microcosm into social, cultural, and literary studies, this interdisciplinary volume challenges the widely held assumption that city life is evenly spread across its spaces. Sixteen case studies focus on selected urban microcosms from across Europe between 1789 and 1940, and examine the external appearance, representation, histories, and internal rules of these organizational structures and facilities. In so doing, they contribute to an understanding of modernity, and of the impact of the dynamics of urban life on human experience and intersubjectivity. Margit Dirscherl is Lecturer in German at St Hugh's, University of Oxford. Astrid Köhler is Professor of German Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies at Queen Mary University of London.

A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine • Granta Magazine • The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. coli's pivotal role in the history of biology, from the discovery of DNA to the latest advances in biotechnology. He reveals the many surprising and alarming parallels between E. coli's life and our own. And he describes how E. coli changes in real time, revealing billions of years of history encoded within its genome. E. coli is also the most engineered species on Earth, and as scientists retool this microbe to produce life-saving drugs and clean fuel, they are discovering just how far the definition of life can be stretched.