British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.
Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.
Bacteria form a fundamental branch of life. They are the oldest forms of life as we know it, and they are still the most prolific living organisms. They inhabit every part of the Earth's surface, its ocean depths, and even terrains such as boiling hot springs. They are most familiar as agents of disease, but benign bacteria are critical to the recycling of elements and all ecology, as well as to human health.
In this Very Short Introduction, Sebastian Amyes explores the nature of bacteria, their origin and evolution, bacteria in the environment, and bacteria and disease. In this new edition, he examines the ethical implications of synthetic bacteria, the evolving technologies used to combat antibiotics resistance, and the role bacteria play in the evolutionary development of humans.
Preface
1: Origins
2: Evolution
3: Microbiota and microbiome in man
4: Discovery
5: Environment and civilization
6: Bacterial pathogenesis
7: Antibiotics
8: Antibiotic resistance
9: The future
Further reading
Index
Sebastian Amyes is Professor Emeritus of Microbial Chemotherapy at Edinburgh University, and author of many research publications as well as the books Antibacterial Chemotherapy (2010), and Magic Bullets: Lost Horizons (2001).