Explore the everyday miracle of the microscopic world With spectacular macro photography and microscope images, this ebook reveals a hidden, living world full of intricate structures beyond the naked eye. Included are the tiniest insects and spiders; but looking deeper, you will discover truly microscopic creatures--even bacteria and viruses. Earth is home to more microbes, and more different types of microbes, than any other living organism. Bacteria on Earth outweigh humans by 1,100 to 1; and without them, all world ecosystems would collapse. This ebook reveals this vital, unseen realm, but it includes large life-forms too, in extreme close-up, so that you can wonder at the beauty of a pollen grain, a butterfly egg, the spore of a fungus, and the nerve cell of a human. The spectacular imagery in Micro Life exploits cutting-edge technology, such as focus-stacked macro photographs, as well as micrographs (microscope images) including scanning electron micrographs. Illustrations nearby explain the science--from the workings of an insect's eye to how a plant "breathes" through its leaves. The biology builds into a reference on how life works--and how all organisms, however small, solve the basic problems of movement, reproduction, energy, communication, and defense. Micro Life is a beautiful and surprising look at the natural world.

An introduction to microlife. Topics include how small is a bacterium, what is a protist and which microorganisms move around like animals.

Serves as a guide to be used for the identification of microorganisms and provides information about microlife forms and how they affect other life forms, including human.

Every time you visit a garden you walk over a microjungle! The soil under your feet is wriggling with living things. Some are too small for our own eyes to see. This title gives you a close-up look at the types of microlife that lives n the soil all around us.

Kermit the Frog famously said that it isnÕt easy being green, and in Living at Micro Scale David Dusenbery shows that it isnÕt easy being smallÑexisting at the size of, say, a rotifer, a tiny multicellular animal just at the boundary between the visible and the microscopic. ÒImagine,Ó he writes, Òstepping off a curb and waiting a week for your foot to hit the ground.Ó At that scale, we would be small enough to swim inside the letter O in the word Òrotifer.Ó What are the physical consequences of life at this scale? How do such organisms move, identify prey and predators and (if theyÕre so inclined) mates, signal to one another, and orient themselves? In clear and engaging prose, Dusenbery uses straightforward physics to demonstrate the constraints on the size, shape, and behavior of tiny organisms. While recounting the historical development of the basic concepts, he unearths a corner of microbiology rich in history, and full of lessons about how science does or does not progress. Marshalling findings from different fields to show why tiny organisms have some of the properties they are found to have, Dusenbery shows a science that doesnÕt always move triumphantly forward, and is dependent to a great extent on accident and contingency.

Young readers will be astounded by the tiny organisms that live in soil, their ecological roles, and how they adapt to living there. Children will learn the value of even the smallest bacteria and be amazed by the impact that soil degradation has on an entire ecosystem.

How small is a bacterium? What is a protist? Which microorganisms move around like animals? Investigate the curious world of life science. Find out for yourself about microlife through experiments and demonstrations that you can do at home. Discover a kind of microorganism that lives in boiling hot water. See how some microorganisms are harmful to humans. This book will show you the importance of investigating and understanding the world around you.