The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. The Hidden Half of Nature reveals why good health--for people and for plants--depends on Earth's smallest creatures. Restoring life to their barren yard and recovering from a health crisis, David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé discover astounding parallels between the botanical world and our own bodies. From garden to gut, they show why cultivating beneficial microbiomes holds the key to transforming agriculture and medicine.
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Anne Biklé is a biologist and environmental planner. Her career spans the fields of environmental stewardship, habitat restoration, and public health. The Hidden Half of Nature is her first book.
One of the year's best books on gardens and health.--Jim McCausland
Montgomery and Biklé argue that when we farm and when we eat, we're feeding a diverse community of microorganisms. This book is sure to become a game-changing guide to the future of good food and healthy landscapes.--Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate
A great read, opening up for nonscientists the microbial world that underlies all life. You will see your body and the world around you in exciting new ways.--Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation
Reads like a fast-paced novel but tells the true story of the workings of soils, and even our own bodies.--Neil Shubin, author of The Universe Within
[A] beautifully synthesized scientific memoir.--Barbara Kiser
A stunningly clever book that connects the tiny dots of the microbial world. I will never ignore my microbes again.--Kirk Johnson, Sant Director, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
The Hidden Half of Nature offers a wonderfully fresh and exquisitely informed approach that could change how we relate to ourselves, our diets, our gardens and our world.--Tim McNulty
