Showing results by author "Nicholas P. Money" in All Categories

In recent decades we have come to realize that the microbial world is hugely diverse, and can be found in the most extreme environments. Fungi, single-celled protists, bacteria, archaea, and the vast array of viruses and sub-viral particles far outnumber plants and animals. Microbes, we now know...

In The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money argues that we cannot ascribe too much importance to yeast, and that its discovery and controlled use profoundly altered human history. Humans knew what yeast did long before they knew what it was. It was not until Louis Pasteur's experiments in the 1860s that scientists even acknowledged its classification as a fungus. A compelling blend of science, history, and sociology, The Rise of Yeast explores the rich, strange, and utterly symbiotic relationship between people and yeast.

From beneficial yeasts that aid digestion to toxic molds that cause disease, we are constantly navigating a world filled with fungi. Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicines explores the amazing ways fungi interact with our bodies, showing how our health and well-being depend on an immense ecosystem of yeasts and molds inside and all around us.

Noi esseri umani possiamo dirci soddisfatti: siamo la specie dominante su questo pianeta, facciamo avanzare a grandi passi scienza e tecnologia e il nostro progresso sembra infinito. Abbiamo posto noi stessi e la nostra intelligenza al centro dell’universo e stiamo pensando di attribuirci un nuovo nome, Homo deus, per le nostre capacità quasi divine. Eppure, se osserviamo il nostro operato con occhio più disincantato, il nome che ci meritiamo davvero è Homo narcissus, in omaggio al nostro sfrenato egocentrismo e alla nostra incapacità di vederci come parte di un mondo che stiamo devastando.

Many of us are introduced to the amoeba in science class at school but know very little about the amazing life of this versatile, shape-shifting cell. A Is for Amoeba is packed with surprising stories that give listeners a richer appreciation of these astonishing microbes, revealing what amoebas have to tell us about the natural world and ourselves. Along the way, this entertaining and informative book shows how amoebas influenced figures like Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw in them an expression of the will to power, and Sigmund Freud, who likened the movements of amoebas to the human ego.