We elbowed our way into Bb's story comparatively recently, ironically hurting ourselves as we renewed our appreciation of and commitment to wilderness areas. As we destroyed, and then created, habitat for deer, we ended up inviting Bb to run amok in our bodies. Karlen captures the beauty and terror of this bizarre chain of events perfectly, providing new insights into our relationship with our environment. Much like its cousins that live harmlessly in our bloodstream, eyelashes, and gut, this tick-borne germ will eventually evolve a truce with us to protect its reproduction; unfortunately for current and future sufferers of Lyme disease, we're quite a few generations away from that happy time. While we're waiting, we can read Biography of a Germ to learn more about our new tenants and why we should care about them. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Germs get a bad press, so we never hear their side of the story. What is life really like in their invisible kingdom? Arno Karlen tells the fascinating life story of the germ Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb for short), the microbe that causes Lyme disease. He takes us through its ancestry, its appearance, its environment, its sex life, its struggle for survival, and its adventures with other species, including us. Interwoven with Bb's biography are fascinating discursions on how life began, why we cannot live without bacteria, and how perturbed environments breed disease. Karlen also describes how perceptions of microbes have changed through history, especially their unfair connection with dirt and suffering. The Biography of a Germ makes the world of microbiology absolutely riveting, and it will help to rehabilitate Bb's undeserved reputation.

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