Micro Life: Miracles of the Miniature World Revealed

This document was uploaded by one of our users. The uploader already confirmed that they had the permission to publish it. If you are author/publisher or own the copyright of this documents, please report to us by using this DMCA report form.

Simply click on the Download Book button.

Yes, Book downloads on Ebookily are 100% Free.

Sometimes the book is free on Amazon As well, so go ahead and hit "Search on Amazon"

Explore the miracles of the microscopic world.

Find out all about the unique and beautiful kingdoms of life at a microscopic scale and how every organism meets the challenges of survival no matter its size. The perfect book for people who enjoy photography, nature and biology.

Inside the pages of this exciting educational nature book, you'll find:

- Microscopic life-forms (often neglected), and their life-forms in extreme close-ups, revealing details such as nerve cells and hair follicles.
- Artworks support the beautiful images, providing a deeper insight into structure and function and building a picture of how living organisms work at a microscopic level.
- Comprehensive coverage of the natural world, including all the main groups of living things.
- Explores overlooked groups that have a huge role in the natural world: insects, which make up 80% of the world's animal species, and bacteria - of which there are more in a human mouth than there are people in the world.
- The book is organized according to the main functions of life: movement, reproduction, energy and feeding, sensing the surroundings, defense, etc.
- Optional 80-page section containing a catalog of the major kingdoms of life.

The beauty of nature under a microscope

Explore the inhabitants of an invisible world in incredible detail with this book, which contains macro photography and spectacular microscope imagery. You'll have so much information about the hidden world of intricate structures beyond the naked eye. From the tiniest spiders and insects to even microscopic creatures like bacteria and viruses, this book contains it all!

See the beauty of a pollen grain, a butterfly egg, the spore of a fungus and a human's nerve cell in extreme close up. The amazing imagery in Micro Life contains focus-stacked macro photographs and micrographs (microscope images), including scanning electron micrographs. Illustrations in this book explain the science - from the workings of an insect's eye to how a plant "breathes" through its leaves.

Micro Life
is an unexpectedly breathtaking look at the natural world. Find out how life works and how organisms solve the fundamental problems of movement, reproduction, energy, communication and defense. This book belongs on the bookshelves of schools, libraries and homes for those interested in photography, nature or biology.

Author(s): DK, Smithsonian
Publisher: DK
Year: 2021

Language: English

contents
introduction
scale in the micro world
types of living organisms
macro life up close
getting nourishment
solar-powered microbes
absorbing light
root hairs
topping up nitrogen
fixing nitrogen
bacteria
Escherichia coli
damaging a host
absorbing food
Penicillium
engulfing prey
microbial predator
stinging cells
feeding on particles
connecting mouthparts
insect mouthparts
blood sucker
drinking sap
rasping food
venomous pincers
predigesting prey
food into the bloodstream
living in the gut
spinning webs
neither animal nor plant
eating wood
powering the body
energy release
using oxygen
mineral energy
fermentation energy
poisoned by oxygen
gas exchange
breathing tubes
the gills of insects
mammal lungs
carrying oxygen
circulatory system
leaf pores
keeping warm
sensing and responding
sensing the environment
antennae
sensing taste
hearing sound
sensory cells in the ear
judging distance
compound eyes
producing color
iridescence
producing light
color changers
nerve cells
coordinating behavior
moving
beating hairs
Paramecium
crawling cells
swimming with hairs
combs of cilia
simple muscles
contracting muscles
overcoming friction
smooth rowing
controlling buoyancy
tube feet
living at the surface
backswimmers
clinging feet
telescopic legs
jointed legs
catapulting
jumping with legs
insect wings
stabilizing flight
tiniest fliers
flight feather
hitchhiking mites
supporting and protecting
a cell’s internal skeleton
diatoms
microscopic shells
silica skeletons
cellulose armor
sponge spicules
shedding water
chemical defenses
skeleton on the outside
staying hidden
echinoderm skeleton
shark skin
vertebrate skeletons
mammal hair
cell walls
supporting stems
leaf surfaces
insect stingers
irritating hairs
stinging hairs
internal defense
reproducing
sabotaging cells
coronavirus
swarming bacteria
asexual reproduction
fertilizing an egg
fungus reproduction
alternating generations
sex in flowering plants
pollen grains
bees
hidden pollination
boom and bust
escaping starvation
competing for mates
parental care
growing and changing
colonies of cells
cell division
developing embryo
insect eggs
how ferns grow
seeds
seed germination
simple plants
growing up as plankton
growing in steps
long and short lifespans
habitats and lifestyles
ubiquitous bacteria
surviving extremes
tardigrades
surviving cold
hanging on
marine plankton
copepods
pond microorganisms
freshwater communities
nematodes
recycling matter
between sand grains
forming galls
mosquitoes
living on skin
living in hair
gut communities
infecting blood cells
brain parasites
plant-fungus partnership
part fungus, part alga
photosynthetic helpers
classification
glossary
index
acknowledgments