Air-borne : the hidden history of the life we breathe / Carl Zimmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zimmer, Carl, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Airborne infection--Popular works.

Airborne infection.

Airborne infection--History--Popular works.

Air--Microbiology--History--Popular works.

Air.

Genre:

Popular works.

Physical Description:

xxv, 469 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, [2025]

Summary:

"Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air--and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus. In Air-Borne, award-winning New York Times columnist and author Carl Zimmer leads us on an odyssey through the living atmosphere and through the history of its discovery. We travel to the tops of mountain glaciers, where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air, and follow Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh above the clouds, where they conducted groundbreaking experiments. We meet the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology including William and Mildred Wells, who tried for decades to warn the world about airborne infections, only to die in obscurity. Air-Borne chronicles the dark side of aerobiology with gripping accounts of how the United States and the Soviet Union clandestinely built arsenals of airborne biological weapons designed to spread anthrax, smallpox, and an array of other pathogens. Air-Borne also leaves readers looking at the world with new eyes--as a place where the oceans and forests loft trillions of cells into the air, where microbes eat clouds, and where life soars thousands of miles on the wind. Weaving together gripping history with the latest reporting on COVID and other threats to global health, Air-Borne surprises us on every page as it reveals the hidden world of the air"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue: That's where it is

Part 1: To the stratosphere. The floating germs ; The sanitarians ; A watermelon doctor ; Ethereal space ; A perfect cycle ; The scattered workers

Part 2: The suicide of bacteriology. War at home ; Wings for death ; A fine frozen daiquiri

Part 3: Afterlife. Loch raven ; The brothers Riley ; Sacks of sugar, vials of powder

Part 4: Resurrection. Sea, land, fire, clouds ; We're all going to get it ; A state of preparedness

Part 5: Wuhan and beyond. Disease X ; History set us up ; A mark on the air

Epilogue: Happy birthday, Chita Rivera.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 417-456) and index.

ISBN:

9780593473597

0593473590

OCLC:

1449673795