The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the planet in the early 2020s killed more than six million, delivered unimaginable human suffering and $22 trillion in lost global growth. We weren't prepared and should have been. Unraveling the secrets of microbes, an invisible parallel universe of tiny life forms all around us, is central to managing the big twenty-first-century challenges of pandemics, bioterrorism, food security and climate change. Scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and political leaders are racing to decode this biological realm with powerful new tools to extend human lifespans and make the world safer and more prosperous. Yet such technologies need to be handled with care. The price of getting this wrong will be unbearable. Man Versus Microbe is about humanity's competitive, symbiotic and precarious relationship with the microbial world. Brian Bremner (Senior Executive Editor, Bloomberg) offers a book on the exhilarating fields of synthetic biology and genetics, abundant with material on emerging technologies to deepen one's understanding of how virus hunters chase bugs or how geneticists unlock the workings of a microbe's constituent DNA. This book is for readers who want to learn more about humanity's fight to contain future pandemics and better understand the risks and opportunities of living in the world of microbes. After navigating through a disruptive pandemic, we are all amateur epidemiologists now.
Author(s): Brian Bremner
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 321
City: London
Contents
About the Author
Introduction
Micropian Age
Small Things Considered
Supersystem of Life
Viral Zombies
Species Malpractice
Biohacking Armageddon
Alpha and Omega
THE RISKS
Chapter 1 Global System Failure
Stone Age Minds
From Athens to Wuhan
China’s Viral Crisis
Gaming the Pandemic
Preemptive Strike Strategy
Chapter 2 Surveillance for a Pandemic Age
Life on Mars
Virus Sleuthing
Mosquito Mercenaries
Chapter 3 Hacking into Nature’s Secrets
Siri, What’s Ebola?
Catastrophic Risk
Chapter 4 Vaccines Anytime, Anywhere
Radical Step Change
Mists of Time
Medium Is the Message
Pathogens Incognito
Anti-Vax Diehards
Chapter 5 How the WHO Lost Its Way
Brutish and Short
Third Rail
Split Personality
Catastrophic Moral Failure
WHO Reimagined
THE OPPORTUNITIES
Chapter 6 Our Microbes, Ourselves
The Second Genome
Gut-Brain Nexus
Tiny But Mighty
Chapter 7 Viruses That Do No Harm
Rise of the Superbugs
Phages to the Rescue
Comrade Phage
Chapter 8 Terrestrial Distress Signals
Dirty Destiny
Calling All Microbes
Microbial Multitudes
Microbial Chefs
Fresh from the Labs
Chapter 9 Microbial Ocean Lords
Trouble Beneath the Waves
Microbial Web
Deep Blue Carbon Pumps
Saving the Big Blue Sea
Microbial Ocean Healers
Nature’s Tiny Pollution-Busters
Microbial Sea Harvest
Chapter 10 Tiny Sky Pilots in the Jetstream
High Life
Stratospheric Microbes
Microbial Air Attacks
Microbial SkyNet
Chapter 11 Why Microbes Control Our Climate Destiny
Inner Mastodon
Geological Disruption
Super Models
Moving Targets
Degrees of Concern
Amazonian Carbon Shift
Oceanic Roulette
Deus Ex Machina
THE DEEP FUTURE
Chapter 12 The Synthetic Biology Paradox
SynBio Godfather
SynBio-phoria
Massive Knowledge Gaps
Animal Organ Farm
Chapter 13 Biorisk Without Borders
Grim Precedents
Smallpox.com
Biohackers in Arms
SynBio Sentinels
Chapter 14 Microbial Eve: A Creation Story
Warm Little Pond
Tangled Tree of Life
Scarred Revolutionary
Evolutionary Noise
Physics of Life
Chapter 15 Ground Control to Major E. Coli
Microbial Martians
Europa Beckons
Terraforming Mars
Interstellar Visions
Genesis Project
Conclusion: What the Microbes Are Telling Us
Situational Awareness
Microbial Indifference
Intertwined Fates
Pandemic Preparedness
Biosecurity
Microbiome Research
Evolutionary Mindshift
Acknowledgments
References
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Conclusion
Index
