The Hidden Half of Nature

The Microbial Roots of Life and Health

De: David R. Montgomery, Anne Bikle

Narrado por: LJ Ganser

A riveting exploration of how microbes are transforming the way we see nature and ourselves - and could revolutionize agriculture and medicine.

Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. Good health - for people and for plants - depends on Earth's smallest creatures. The Hidden Half of Nature tells the story of our tangled relationship with microbes and their potential to revolutionize agriculture and medicine, from garden to gut.

When David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé decide to restore life into their barren yard by creating a garden, dead dirt threatens their dream. As a cure, they feed their soil a steady diet of organic matter. The results impress them. In short order, the much-maligned microbes transform their bleak yard into a flourishing Eden. Beneath their feet, beneficial microbes and plant roots continuously exchange a vast array of essential compounds. The authors soon learn that this miniaturized commerce is central to botanical life's master strategy for defense and health.

They are abruptly plunged further into investigating microbes when Biklé is diagnosed with cancer. Here, they discover an unsettling truth. An armada of bacteria (our microbiome) sails the seas of our gut, enabling our immune system to sort microbial friends from foes. But when our gut microbiome goes awry, our health can go with it. The authors also discover startling insights into the similarities between plant roots and the human gut.

We are not what we eat. We are all - for better or worse - the products of what our microbes eat. This leads to a radical reconceptualization of our relationship to the natural world: By cultivating beneficial microbes, we can rebuild soil fertility and help turn back the modern plague of chronic diseases. The Hidden Half of Nature reveals how to transform agriculture and medicine - by merging the mind of an ecologist with the care of a gardener and the skill of a doctor.

©2016 David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

How little we know

Rediscovering the world of bacterial life and the useless war we humans have been fighting and how futile and against our own benefit this effort is.

Excellent book!

Everything from the content to the narration was excellent. A joy to listen too and very educational.

Life Changing!!

This book is fantastic!! It has changed the way I view the world...& the way I garden my yard. I listened to it twice & look forward to a third time!

Good all round

If you like detail I do, for me it was “good food for thought”. Reminded me to eat variety, greens and keep an eye on the basics.

very interesting read

While this book is at times redundant it is really a very interesting read if you can get past that. I've been hearing a lot in the news about our micro biomes and the little probiotics and things that determine our health more than we ever realized. This book gives you a full picture of all the different ways they affect us our food our health and the land around us.