Where the Germs Are: A Scientific Safari
by Nicholas Bakalar

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Book Reviews of Where the Germs Are: A Scientific Safari

Book Review: Interesting and valuable information, well-presented
Summary: 5 Stars

As far as readability goes, this is the best general-information book on germs that I have read, and I have read several. What Bakalar does so very well is inform, period. He also has a witty and easy flowing style that makes the pages turn. He is a writer who loves to explain how the microbial world of disease works. He likes to turn away misconceptions and debunk urban myths without taking himself too seriously. He can be slyly funny as when he notes that house mice "are in general not a reservoir of serious human illness," but that "any restaurant that allows them to frolic in the presence of diners is likely to be out of business soon." Or when he identifies electrocuting insect traps that "may actually spread germs into the air" as "the kind that produce that satisfying buzz every time they kill a fly." (p. 197)

He can also be profound. Consider this from page 15: "Viruses, bacteria, archaea, prions, protozoa, and fungi all exist in nature. Disease does not. Disease is a human invention, not a phenomenon that exists out there apart from us." He adds that from the point of view of the disease agent, "the infection is merely life." And indeed, "From the point of view of some organisms, human beings themselves are a disease." He notes that tigers, for example, have a bad case of "humans."

One of the myths that he debunks that I had long believed was that the recycled air in passenger airplanes was a significant cause of disease. Turns out that in older airplanes such as DC-9s and 727s the air is not recycled at all but drawn entirely from outside the plane. In newer airplanes "half the cabin air is recirculated" but it is filtered better and refreshed more often than in office buildings. (pp. 209-210)

Chapter headings include The Contaminated Kitchen, Toilet Training, Kids and Microbes, Microbes and Your Sex Life, Pets and Their Germs, Water and What's in It, Germs in Public Places, etc. Bakalar ends the book with a chapter on products you can buy at the store that may or may not kill germs and improve your health. Naturally all sorts of ugly microbes make their appearance including plague, West Nile virus, smallpox, TB, cholera, etc. as well as some not so charming vectors: mice, rats, mosquitoes, ticks, bats, fleas, and their brethren, cockroaches, flies and things that creep in the night.

There is a 15-page glossary and there are footnotes arranged by chapter (a dense paragraph for each) at the back of the book that you can examine for further information. The notes are not subscripted nor referenced by page. I'm not sure I like this but it does unclutter the text.

Summary of Where the Germs Are: A Scientific Safari

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