Biography of a Germ

Arno Karlen, author ofMan and Microbes, focuses on a single bacterium inBiography of a Germ, giving us an intimate view of a life that has been shaped by and is in turn transforming our own. Borrelia burgdorferiis the germ that causes Lyme disease. In existence for some hundred million years, it was discovered only recently. Exploring its evolution, its daily existence, and its journey from ticks to mice to deer to humans, Karlen lucidly examines the life and world of this recently prominent germ. He also describes how itattacks the human body, and how by changing the environment, people are now much more likely to come into contact with it. Charming and thorough and smart, this book is a wonderfully written biography of your not so typical biographical subject.

Arno Karlen, Ph.D., a pschoanalyst, has written widely on history and biomedical science. He is the author of Napoleon's Glands and Other Ventures in Biohistory and Man and Microbes: Diseases and Plauges in History and Modern Times. He lives in New York City. From the Hardcover edition.

A Very Small Life	p. 3
A Subject Not Picked at Random	p. 5
A Brief Aside Touching the Erotic Flea	p. 12
Why Bb in Particular	p. 16
Apologia Pro Vita Sua: In Defense of Germs	p. 21
In Some Warm Little Pond	p. 34
Linnaeus's Tree	p. 44
And Bb's Twig	p. 52
Gaia, or Nearly Everyone's Cousin	p. 60
Very Small Indeed	p. 64
Not Just a Corkscrew	p. 73
A Possibly Poignant Anatomy	p. 76
Instead of Sex	p. 83
A Fantastic Voyage	p. 87
Equally Fantastic	p. 97
Is the Tick Sick?	p. 105
Rash Discoveries	p. 111
The Magic of Names	p. 117
The Annals of Myopia	p. 121
From Bitterroot to Lyme	p. 126
Far from Primeval	p. 133
Machupo and Other Disturbances	p. 145
With Apologies of Sorts	p. 153
Like Darwin's Finches?	p. 163
A More Hopeful Future	p. 171
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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Author Biography

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