Reviews

Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese

Written by B. and F. Percival
Bloomsbury (2017)
£16.99 ISBN 978-1472955517

Part manifesto, part history and part reference book, this summary of modern cheese-making will appeal equally to microbiologists, cheese aficionados, farmers and cheesemakers. With good humour, the two charming and well-informed authors (Bronwen Percival is the cheese buyer for Neal’s Yard Dairy; her husband Francis is a food and wine writer) provoke debate about cheese, but also about the state of everything related to food, land use and modern consumption. 

Chapters review the factors that govern production and quality of cheese, largely in northern Europe and the US. The Ecologies chapter sets the scene with today’s re-assessment of the benefits, hazards and decline of microbial diversity in milk, and introduces the scientists whose work has challenged the predominant “destroy and replace” strategy for managing microbes in the dairy industry.

Setting out the current tensions in the market, and pondering the success of ‘real’ ale and bread, the authors state their ambition for “real cheeses made in the context of specific places”. The biochemistry of cheese production leads into the source of the milk: the specifics of dairy cattle genetics is a re-evaluation of the utility of the ubiquitous black and white cows. 

A recurrent theme is the problem of treating milk as a bulk commodity: market forces may now finally favour smaller scale producers. The Microbes, Risks and Cultures chapters are the heart of the book for microbiologists. The predominant species feature alongside those endowing particular flavours, and there is a thorough assessment of pasteurisation and dairy hygiene, and even difficulties with bacteriophages.

The authors firmly set out their stand for unique cheeses produced with characterful milk with as few inputs as possible – but must still ask, is it possible, after so much loss of expertise, to reinvent the wheel? To manage this scope and detail without clunkiness and errors is a tour de force.

Elinor Thompson

University of Greenwich

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The below review is published online in addition to those in the print or PDF copy of this issue of Microbiology Today.

Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention

Written by M.G. Cordingley
Harvard University Press (2017)
£39.95 ISBN 978-0674972087

To many, viruses are merely agents of disease. However, over the years we have exploited them as reagents and tools for scientific investigation, as vaccines to protect against disease, and more recently, even for the treatment of human disease. Challenges such as viral outbreaks and epidemics, or antiviral drug resistance, demonstrate that viruses can change their characteristics, but the cells that viruses are dependent upon can change as well because of the infection. Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention lays out the effects that viruses have on their hosts, whether single-celled like bacteria, or multicellular like plants and animals. The book covers how the changes that viruses have brought about over millions of years of evolution have contributed to the development of key processes like photosynthesis and the evolution of mammals.

Changes caused by viruses allow their hosts’ cells to behave differently under different environmental conditions, decreasing the survival potential of some and increasing the survival potential of others within a population. These environmental conditions act as selective pressures, thus driving the evolution of the viruses’ hosts and leading to the ‘invention’ of new forms of life, as suggested in the book title.

This book is a virology course in itself, describing the features that are important for replication, transmission and virulence in the context of the effects that viruses have upon their hosts. However, since Viruses describes the long-term effects on the evolution of species, as well as the short-term effects on individual hosts, the book will be of interest to not only virologists, but also those interested in evolution and biology in general. Despite being a wealth of information about viruses and their effects, it is a narrative, not a textbook. It is very well written, but it would benefit from a cheaper, more accessible paperback version.

Christopher Ring

Middlesex University