Reviews

One Health: People, Animals, and the Environment

EDITED BY R. M. ATLAS & S. MALOY
ASM PRESS (2014)
US$90.00 ISBN 978-1555818425

The One Health concept is defined as a global, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaborative effort to reach optimal health for people, animals and the environment at a local, national and international level. As the world is getting riskier and pathogens keep emerging and re-emerging, this book stresses the importance of the One Health concept as a means of predicting and preventing infectious disease epidemics before they happen – an alternative to current emergency outbreak response practices.

The book is divided into 20 individual but interlinked chapters, written by leading experts that cover the following topics:

• Importance and key concepts of the One Health approach.
• Origins of infectious diseases and risk factors associated with their emergence.
• Case histories of recent zoonotic viral, bacterial and fungal infections.
• Antibiotic resistance.
• Disease surveillance systems and global information networks.
• Obstacles to implementing One Health, early successes and future directions.

I found this book well written, easy to follow and interesting. The chapters are referenced throughout and offer links to websites and online tools for further studies. A number of chapters include illustrations, tables or flow charts. Some information is slightly redundant given the independence of the chapters, but overall each chapter looks at the One Health approach from a different angle.

One Health certainly is a very relevant topic in the light of current and future infectious disease outbreaks. Thus, this book would be a useful resource for postgraduate students, veterinarians, physicians, microbiologists, ecologists, epidemiologists or politicians with prior knowledge of infectious diseases and an interest in understanding the links between human and animal health and environmental factors.

ISABELLE DIETRICH

MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

In Search of Cell History: The Evolution of Life’s Building Blocks

WRITTEN BY F. M. HAROLD
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS (2014)
£28.00 ISBN 978-0226174280

In Search of Cell History: The Evolution of Life’s Building Blocks is an important new book by the American microbial physiologist Franklin M. Harold, which really aims to remind the gene/genome-centric generation of (micro)biologists about the centrality of the cell itself in our thinking about the evolution of life. This is not a return to any vitalistic theory of life, but a clear and modern restatement of the importance of the membrane-bound bag of biochemicals that constitutes a cell as being equally important in the emergence and transmission of life as the genetic material it houses. No biologist would doubt Verchow’s statement of 1858 of “Omnis cellula e cellula”, or “every cell from a previous cell”, and although Craig Venter can synthesise a complete bacterial genome, it is lifeless until it is transplanted into an existing living cell. The book aims to describe how cells came about and Harold takes us on a journey back through time, bringing together the latest microbiological and evolutionary research to try and address important and still mainly unanswered questions about the origins of cellular systems. I found it a fascinating book that one can dip in and out of, as Harold brings together many different lines of evidence from, for example, geology, symbiosis and bioenergetics, to his story. It is certainly aimed at working (micro)biologists and is not a regular popular science book with some quite technical sections, but it is well suited to readers of Microbiology Today and I would highly recommend it.

GAVIN H. THOMAS

University of York

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

I, Superorganism: Learning to love your inner ecosystem

WRITTEN BY J. TURNEY
ICON BOOKS (2015)
£12.99 ISBN 978-1848318229

Billed as the first book-length account of the human microbiome, this description of what makes us a superorganism is an entertaining and informative read. The style is light and fun, keeping complex scientific ideas interspersed with humour to avoid it becoming too dry. In certain places it helps to have a pre-existing understanding of the science (particularly the immunology sections, although that might just be me) but it’s mostly very accessible and Turney writes with an infectious enthusiasm for the subject.

The book is filled with lots of great facts, stories and research. I didn’t know breast milk had its own bacterial communities and sadly it’s unlikely I can blame my gut microbiota for my extra weight. Controversial, unproven hypotheses (of which there are many in this area) are approached in a straightforward way, highlighting gaps in knowledge but allowing the ideas to be voiced.

An unfortunate typo describes an experiment in which DNA is stored at 280°C (I’m guessing they meant -80°C), but I don’t think anyone trying it out will make the error.

This book gives a great overview of the state of the human microbiome research as it currently stands. In such a fast-paced research area, it inevitably will become outdated quickly. However, I think it will remain a useful, easy-to-read introduction to the subject.

THERESA HUDSON

Microbiology Society

Scientific Integrity (Fourth Edition)

EDITED BY F. L. MACRINA
ASM PRESS (2014)
US$65 ISBN 978-1555816612

It’s probably fair to say that most of us wouldn’t consider the subject area of this book to be particularly exciting, but when a group of scientists catch up with each other at a conference, the conversation inevitably turns to the (perceived?) injustices of peer review, authorship status and imbalanced collaborations. Now in its fourth edition, Scientific Integrity covers the best and worst practices throughout the scientific process and provides a wide range of case studies and student exercises. The first two chapters deal with the general ethics and responsible conduct of research and distil a range of governmental guideline documents into a logical and easy to follow format. The contents of many of the subsequent chapters focus on scenarios that most of us will recognise and that are universal in whatever scientific jurisdiction we find ourselves. An example of this includes the chapter covering authorship and peer review, which succinctly defines the definitions, duties and responsibilities of the key players in these scenarios. The chapter ends with discussion questions and case studies (as with all the chapters in the book), such as dilemmas about authorship versus acknowledgement. The chapter on collaborative research provides a useful structure to managing collaborations in regard to collaborative agreements, data sharing and ownership, as well as considerations when dealing with industrial collaborations. The main drawback of this book is that certain chapters are so heavily tailored for the American readership that they are largely irrelevant to the international reader. This is particularly acute in the chapters relating to animal and human experimentation and intellectual property that only consider US law and NIH/NSF regulations. Regardless of this criticism, Scientific Integrity will still be a useful volume for anybody tasked with equipping postgraduate students with the generic scientific skills and moral compass that they will need throughout their career.

NICK TUCKER

University of Strathclyde

Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable

WRITTEN BY P. G. FALKOWSKI
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS (2015)
US$24.95 ISBN 978-0691155371

Paul Falkowski tells the story of life from the point of view that matters most: the microbes which started it all off, which had the Earth to themselves for some 3.5 billion years, which eventually made life possible for more complex organisms like plants and animals, and which continue to make Earth habitable for all of us. This engaging and entertaining book provides rich insights for a popular science audience, but is also of interest for more specialised readers. The author commendably uses a blend of humour, hard and astonishing facts, illuminative analogies, historical perspectives, as well as personal stories and opinions, to highlight a broad range of topics. Key concepts such as core cellular machines and genes, generation of oxygen and other vital biochemical reactions, horizontal gene transfer, evolution of multicellularity, and our varied interactions with microbes are all explained in an inspiring manner. The book culminates in pointing out the recent disruptive influence of humans and ends with a cautionary message about tinkering with microbial evolution through synthetic biology. After all, as the author puts it, microbes “are our true ancestors and the true stewards of life on Earth”.

JÜRG BÄHLER

University College London

Epigenetics: Current Research and Emerging Trends

EDITED BY B. P. CHADWICK
CAISTER ACADEMIC PRESS (2015)
£159 ISBN 978-1910190074

Epigenetics is a much used – and much abused – term that has now entered the lexicon of the modern molecular bioscientist. Yet it is not a new term as we are reminded in the Preface to this timely volume; Conrad Waddington first introduced the term some 70 years ago ostensibly to try and explain developmental programming of cells. The ‘consensus’ definition of epigenetics offered by the Editor, Brian Chadwick, in his preface reflects a more contemporary and informed view i.e.  “... The study of the mitotic and/or meiotic heritability of gene expression triggered through a transient initiating event that occurs in the absence of change to the DNA sequence...”. Consequently two thirds of this nicely produced volume focuses on summarising what we have recently found out about a range of epigenetic processes, the proteins involved and giving several examples of human genetic diseases that have an underlying epigenetic aetiology. The last third of the volume focuses on new and emerging epigenetic-related topics and these I found the most rewarding and informative. The last two years have seen over a dozen books published with the word ‘epigenetics’ in the title, not all of which are aimed at the informed scientific community. This new volume is a useful and timely addition to that literature and while it may not cover all the various facets of epigenetics, e.g. fungal prions, microbiologists will find much of interest here.

MICK F. TUITE

University of Kent