Missing Microbes
A clarion call to save humanity’s most essential fellow creatures – and our health
Far beneath our skin exists an unfathomable, ancient universe – an internal ecosystem that is critical to our health. Dr Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human ‘microbiome’, unfurling its inner workings and evolution. For thousands of years, bacteria and human cells have co-existed in a relationship that has ensured the health and equilibrium of our body. But now, much like the natural world outside of us, our internal environment is being irrevocably destroyed. The culprit: some of our most revered medical advances – antibiotics – which appear to be linked to the epidemics of asthma, eczema, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and other diseases plaguing modern society.
In a book that stands as the Silent Spring of its day, Blaser sounds a provocative alarm that we ignore at our peril.
Dr Martin Blaser is a world-renowned expert on the role of bacteria in human disease. He is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at New York University, where he directs the Human Microbiome Program, and his research has appeared in journals including BMJ and Lancet. Blaser and his work have been covered by the BBC, CNN, Wired, New Scientist, Nature, The New Yorker, and others. He lives in New York.