Where the Germs Are: A Scientific Safari

276 Pages·2003·1.212 MB·English

by  Nicholas Bakalar

Where the Germs Are
A S S
CIENTIFIC AFARI
Nicholas Bakalar
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Where the Germs Are
A S S
CIENTIFIC AFARI
Nicholas Bakalar
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2003 by Nicholas Bakalar. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Microbes: An Introduction 1
2 Hungry? Let’s Eat: The Contaminated Kitchen 17
3 Toilet Training: Washing Hands Is the Best Revenge 49
4 Whiter Whites and Brighter Colors: Healthy Laundry 61
5 Clean Up That Room: Kids and Microbes 71
6 What Love’s Got to Do with It: Microbes and Your
Sex Life 98
7 Wild Kingdom: Pets and Their Germs 121
8 Up Your Nose: The Flu and the Cold 136
9 Bottled or Tap: Water, and What’s in It 152
10 Fresh Air and Sunshine: Outdoor Fun with Microbes 164
11 Paint the Town Red: Germs in Public Places 189
12 The Antiseptic Supermarket: Products That Do Something,
Products That Do Nothing, and Products That Actually
Do Harm 215
Glossary 227
Notes 243
Index 255

Preface
D
irty! Don’t touch! Yuck! Feh! You don’t know
where it’s been! These admonitions ring in our ears, for some of us our
earliest memories of parental exhortation, for others the indelible mark
of our deepest fears. Germs, as we know, are everywhere, lying in wait
to attack the inadequately vigilant or insufficiently armed, gangs of ser-
ial killers on a random search for their next victim. We do not mock.
Well, maybe we mock a little, but in fact, Mother (or Father) does
sometimes know best—some germs can be very nasty invaders indeed.
Yet we live in a world of microbes, some dreadful, some harmless, some
essential to our continued life on earth. Knowing which to avoid, which
to eliminate, and which just to live with happily can turn fearful warn-
ings into reasoned discourse and trembling terror into intelligent
action. Reassuring? Perhaps. But be warned: there are things out there
you’re not afraid of that you really should fear, and we will not shrink
from pointing them out. Germs, in fact, are almost everywhere you
thought they were, and in a lot of places you thought they weren’t. This
book is a Baedeker for a microscopic country, the land of the most com-
mon microbes we encounter in everyday life. It reveals what microbi-
ologists have learned about these creatures (or at least some of what
they’ve learned), and shows the reader how to make his way in a world
that is, no matter what we do or how we act, completely infested with
invisible beings.
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