Selenium: Its Molecular Biology and Role in Human Health

Book Description

This book is meant to provide an in-depth understanding of the molecular biology of selenium and how this element makes its way into protein. Selenium is an essential trace element in the diet of humans and many other life forms. It plays an important role in preventing certain forms of cancer, heart disease and other cardiovascular and muscle disorders. Evidence points to numerous other health benefits including an indispensable function in development, male reproduction and the immune system. In addition, selenium serves as an antiviral agent and may delay the onset of AIDS in HIV positive patients and delay the aging process. The emphasis of this book is on the current status of the molecular biology of selenium. The importance of this element in human health is also highlighted.

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Selenium As Food and Medicine
Richard A. Passwater
Manufacturer: Keats Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Exercise & Fitness | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Physiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0879832371

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Selenium

Manufacturer: Krieger Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Inorganic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

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Mathematical Physics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Selenium and Cancer: Larry C. Clark Memorial Issue: A Special Issue of Nutrition and Cancer (Nutrition and Cancer : An International Journal, Volume 40, Number 1, 2001)

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Selenium and Cancer: Larry C. Clark Memorial Issue: A Special Issue of Nutrition and Cancer (Nutrition and Cancer : An International Journal, Volume 40, Number 1, 2001)

Manufacturer: Lawrence Erlbaum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

Biochemistry | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805896813

Book Description

This special issue is devoted to the cancerchemopreventive effects of the trace element selenium. Although epidemiological and animal model studies have contributed enormously to this field, the clinical trial headed by the late Dr. Larry Clark brought to light the very real possibility that selenium compounds may serve as protective agents in populations at risk for prostate, colon, and lung cancers. For this reason, experts from various disciplines have been brought together to address the current state of the knowledge of the role of selenium as an anticancer agent. It is hoped that by bringing these various approaches together in one place, the research community, both graduate students and established investigators, can better grasp the complex nature of this field. The papers in this issue cover the entire spectrum of cancer research, ranging from clinical trials to animal model studies and molecular biology.

Selenium Against Cancer and Aids (Keats Good Health Guide)

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Protect yourself from cancer with selenium
the most scientific knoledge on the subject

Selenium Against Cancer and Aids (Keats Good Health Guide)
Richard A. Passwater
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

AIDS | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

Protect yourself from cancer with selenium.......2007-04-15

A few years ago the results of a large double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study of selenium supplementation was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The multi-year study showed that people given 200 micrograms of supplemental selenium daily had only HALF the death rate from cancer as people who were given a placebo instead of selenium. No harmful side effects were observed. Has your doctor told you about this study or recommended that you take supplemental selenium to reduce your risk of cancer? I doubt it. He or she may well be unaware of this study; or, if aware, has dismissed it because it involved a simple, readily-available nutrient rather than a new wonder drug. But, if any pharmaceutical drug were available which cut the cancer death rate in half with no harmful side effects -- and none currently is -- you would see ads for it plastered on TV and magazines and your doctor would readily prescribe it for you. So if you want to reduce your risk of cancer with selenium you're probably not going to get the information you need from your doctor. However, you can get it from this book. By the way, perhaps your doctor or a friend may tell you that selenium is toxic. It is in large doses, but it is quite safe in the 200 microgram dosage used in the JAMA study which, as noted above, found no harmful side effects. Cancer is a disease that we all dread, but now you have the power to significantly reduce your risk. Please supply yourself with the information you need to do so. Dr. Passwater also discusses Selenium and AIDS.

the most scientific knoledge on the subject.......2000-05-24

cancer and aids,the most two intimidating diseases in the 20th century,are explained in this wonderful-interesting well explained guidebook especially on the protecting and healling mechanisms of the strongest mineral-antioxidant=selenium. the mechanisms,and the diseases are explained simply and the researches are well docomented.this guide is not a thick book, but the amount of proven knoledge are worth of reading this guidebook at least twice.this is a must to everyone interested in those diseases. very much recommanded!

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Perhaps the most important book about AIDS written!
A Must-Read

What Really Causes AIDS
Harold D. Foster
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

AIDS | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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AIDS & HIV | Diseases | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1553691326
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Book Description

WHAT REALLY CAUSES AIDS:
AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The AIDS pandemic is likely to become the greatest catastrophe in human history. Unless a safe, effective vaccine is quickly developed, or the preventive strategies outlined in this book are widely applied, by 2015 one sixth of the world's population will be infected by HIV-1 and some 250 million people will have died from AIDS. Its associated losses by then will be more than those of the Black Death and World War II combined, the equivalent of eight World War Is.1 This pandemic is only one of several ongoing catastrophes involving viruses that encode the selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase.2 Indeed, the world is experiencing simultaneous pandemics caused by Hepatitis B and C viruses, Coxsackie B virus and HIV-1 and HIV-2. As these viruses replicate, because their genetic codes include a gene that is virtually identical to that of the human enzyme glutathione peroxidase, they rob their hosts of selenium. Paradoxically, however, they diffuse most easily in populations that are very selenium deficient,3 possibly because their members have depressed immune systems. It is no coincidence that such viruses are causing havoc at the beginning of the 21st century. The last 50 years have seen enormous expansions in the use of fossil fuels and deforestation by fire. The resulting pollutants have greatly increased the acidity of global precipitation, reducing selenium's ability to enter the food chain. This situation is being made worse by the widespread use of commercial fertilizers since their sulphates, nitrogen, and phosphorus all depress the uptake of selenium by crops. Deficiencies in this essential trace element are being felt most acutely in areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where soil selenium levels are naturally very low. Acid rain is making a bad situation worse, so increasing vulnerability to those viruses that encode glutathione peroxidase. Many populations are also being exposed to a thinning ozone layer, heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, pesticides, and drug, tobacco, and alcohol abuse, all of which depress the human immune system, increasing vulnerability to viruses, including HIV-1 and HIV-2. In July 2000, physicians and scientists from around the world met in Durban, South Africa for the XIII International AIDS Conference. In a declaration, named after the city, 5,018 of them proclaimed that "HIV is the sole cause of AIDS."4 There are, however, at least seven anomalies that strongly suggest that this conventional wisdom is incorrect and that belief in it is blocking progress in the development of new treatments for AIDS and of novel ways of preventing its spread. To illustrate, despite widespread unprotected promiscuous sexual activity in Senegal, HIV- 1 is diffusing very slowly, if at all, amongst the Senegalese.5 It is very apparent that in Africa, differences in soil selenium levels are greatly influencing who becomes infected with HIV-1 and who does not. Indeed, the recently published Selenium World Atlas used the incidence of HIV-1 as a surrogate measure of soil selenium levels because actual levels are, as yet, poorly established in sub-Saharan Africa. A similar relationship has been documented in the United States6 where there has been an inverse relationship, especially in the Black population, between mortality from AIDS and local soil selenium levels. It is well established that individuals who are HIV-positive gradually become more and more selenium deficient.7 This decline, which is known to undermine immune functions, is not unique to HIV-infection but is seen in almost all infectious pathogens.8 However, under normal circumstances, where death does not occur, selenium levels rebound soon after recovery. HIV-1, however, can effectively elude the defense mechanisms of the immune system, and can continue to replicate indefinitely, endlessly depressing serum selenium. As a result, the immune system is compromised, allowing infection by other pathogens that continue to deplete the host of selenium, allowing HIV-1 to replicate more easily, further undermining immunity. Therefore, this relationship between selenium and the immune system is one of positive feedback, in which a decline in either of these two variables causes further depression in the other. Termed the "selenium- CD4 T cell tailspin" by the author,9 it is the reason that serum selenium levels are a better predictor of AIDS mortality than CD4 T cell counts. Like other positive feedback systems, such as avalanches and forest fires, it is extremely difficult to control and gains momentum as it progresses. HIV-1, however, encodes the entire selenoenzyme, glutathione peroxidase. As it replicates, therefore, it depletes its host not only of selenium but also of the other three components of this enzyme: namely, cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan.10 AIDS, therefore, is a nutritional deficiency illness caused by a virus. Its victims suffer from extreme deficiencies of all four of these nutrients which are responsible for such symptoms as depressed CD4T lymphocyte count, vulnerability to cancers (including Kaposi's sarcoma), depression, psoriasis, diarrhea, muscle wasting, and dementia. Associated infections cause their own unique symptoms and increased risk of death. HIV-1 alone, therefore, does not cause AIDS. It involves a multiplicity of co-factors, specifically anything that either depletes serum selenium levels or depresses the immune system enough to permit viral replication. Manipulating the "selenium-CD4T cell tailspin" by adding this trace element to fertilizers and food stuffs opens new avenues for both prevention and treatment. This strategy has been shown to work on other viruses that encode glutathione peroxidase, such as Hepatitis B and C and the Coxsackievirus. The logical treatment of AIDS patients involves supplementation with selenium, cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan, at least to levels at which deficiency symptoms associated with a lack of these nutrients disappear. While this can be most easily achieved by supplements, certain foods contain elevated levels of those four nutrients. Strangely enough, one of the ideal meals for anyone who is HIV-seropositive would include a cheeseburger to which Brazilnut flour had been added to the bun. REFERENCES
1. Foster, H.D. (1976). Assessing disaster magnitude: A social science approach. The Professional Geographer, xxviii(3), 241-247.
2. Taylor, E.W. (1997). Selenium and viral diseases: Facts and hypotheses. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 12 (4), 227-239.
3. Ibid.
4. The Durban Declaration (2000). Nature, 406, 15-16.
5. UNAIDS/WHO Epidemiological Fact Sheet on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections: Senegal. 2000 update (revised).
6. Cowgill, U.M. (1997). The distribution of selenium and mortality owing to acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the continental United States. Biological Trace Element Research, 56, 43-61.
7. Baum, M.K., Shor-Posner, G., Lai, S., Zhang, G., Lai, H., Fletcher, M.A., Sauberlich, H., and Page, J.B. (1997). High risk of HIV-related mortality is associated with selenium deficiency. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, 15(5), 370- 374.
8. Sammalkorpi, K., Valtonen, V., Alfthan, G., Aro, A., and Huttunen, J. (1988). Serum selenium in acute infections. Infection, 16(4), 222- 224.
9. Foster, H.D. (2000). Aids and the "selenium-CD4T cell tailspin": The geography of a pandemic. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, 209, 94-99.
10. Mariorino, M., Aumann, K.D., Brigelius-Flohe;, R., and Doria, D., van den Heuvel, J., McCarthy, J.E.G., Roveri, A., Ursini, F., and Flohé, L. (1998). Probing the presumed catalytic triad of a seleniumcontaining peroxidase by mutational analysis. Z. Ernahrungswiss, 37(Supplement 1), 118-121.

Customer Reviews:

Perhaps the most important book about AIDS written!.......2004-11-03

If you have AIDS or Hepatitis C, this book is a MUST READ! Important nutritional guidelines for improving immunity and improving the symptoms of AIDS dramatically. The solutions are simple and inexpensive. I am a nurse who is passionate about doing something about the AIDS epidemic. I greatly admire this man and his work.

A Must-Read.......2004-05-09

What Really Causes AIDS is a blueprint for preventing AIDS, based on a new model of how HIV-1 causes this disease. This is a plan for stopping the AIDS pandemic.

Dr. Foster pretty much demolishes the HIV/AIDS establishment by calling out, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please bark up *this* tree instead."

Book Description

This book discusses in detail the effects of vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and beta-carotene and other caroteniods on human physiology and health. The expert panel also explores the evidence relating these substances-loosely termed dietary antioxidants-to the reduction of risk of chronic disease, including a research agenda for using biomarkers to confirm the relationship between antioxidant intake and disease.

The book explains how DRIs-which include Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), Adequate Intake, and other measures-are derived for men and women throughout their life stages. This volume reflects several important new insights: a revised approach to estimating vitamin E requirements and a complete review of the literature to allow a determination of RDAs and upper levels (or maximum intakes) for vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and beta-carotene and other carotenoids. This book will be important to professionals in nutrition research and education.

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Frequently Asked Questions:All About Selenium
Richard A. Passwater
Manufacturer: Avery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Diets & Weight Loss | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books | Authors | Diets | Food Counters | Heart Disease | Hypnosis for Diets | Special Conditions
General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0895299674

Book Description

Organized in an accessible Q&A format, this pocket-sized guide gives consumers accurate, up-to-date information about nutritional supplements available today. The guide tells how this vital antioxidant protects the immune system by preventing the formation of free radicals and aiding the production of antibodies as well as offering reliable answers to the questions surrounding much-discussed but still confusing topics.

Selenium: Are You Getting Enough to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

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The best book on selenium EVER!
Selenium can significantly reduce the risk of cancer.
Highly Informative!!

Selenium: Are You Getting Enough to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer
Edgar Drake
Manufacturer: Writer's Showcase Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Acupuncture & Acupressure | Alternative Medicine | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Alternative Medicine | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Acupuncture | Alternative & Holistic | Medicine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0595180663

Book Description

In this timely, fact-intensive book, the author interprets 30 years of peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, including five human clinical trials in the United States and China, which convincingly demonstrate that taking a daily supplement of the essential mineral selenium, with no other changes in lifestyle, can reduce total cancer incidence in at-risk human populations by approximately 37%. With documentation from the literature, the author establishes that selenium is non-uniformly distributed in the United States, has powerful anticancer properties, naturally occurs in several chemical forms that produce different metabolic products differing in their cancer-preventive potency, causes premalignant and malignant cells to commit suicide, is affected by supplements of other nutrients, and stimulates the immune system.

The book also details all the information needed for safe and effective dietary selenium supplementation, including important facts about commercial supplements. Many multivitamin and antioxidant formulas either contain nutrients that can abolish the cancer-preventive effectiveness of selenium, or they contain too little selenium to impact materially anyone’s cancer risk. These and other relevant facts are essential to making an informed choice among the intimidating array of available products.

Customer Reviews:

The best book on selenium EVER!.......2003-04-24

This book goes into great detail over this essential trace mineral called selenium. I've bought other books on selenium and this is by far the most detailed, yet it is still very easy to read. I couldn't put this book down once I got it!

Selenium can significantly reduce the risk of cancer........2002-08-19

Highly Informative!!.......2001-10-23

This book covered it all! It was thorough, informative, and very well researched. Most importantly, it was easy to read and understand. Like most people, I was misinformed about the power of this supplement, and how it could benefit me. Thanks to Dr. Drake, my family and I now understand how to use selenium to minimize our risk of various cancers.

West Nile Virus: Detection, Surveillance and Control (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, V. 951)

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West Nile Virus: Detection, Surveillance and Control (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, V. 951)
Germany) International Conference on the Physics of Selenium and Tellurium (1979 : Konigstein im Taunus
Manufacturer: New York Academy of Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This volume reviews and updates the state of knowledge on arboviruses in general and theWest Nile Virus in particular. It includes reviews of the findings of agencies and individuals who worked on the detection, surveillance, control, treatment, management, and other aspects of West Nile Virus in the Summer of 2000. The papers enhance understanding of the particular problems associated with WNV, outline effective coordination efforts, and discuss intervention options.

Book Description

A fascinating exploration of symbiosis at the microscopic level and its radical extension of Darwinism
Microbes have long been considered dangerous and disgusting-in short, "scum." But by forming mutually beneficial relationships with nearly every creature, be it alga with animals or zooplankton with zebrafish, microbes have in fact been innovative players in the evolutionary process. Now biologist and award-winning science writer Tom Wakeford shows us this extraordinary process at work. He takes us to such far-flung locales as underwater volcanoes, African termite mounds, the belly of a cow and even the gaps between our teeth, and there introduces us to a microscopic world at turns bizarre, seductive, and frightening, but ever responsible for advancing life in our macroscopic world. In doing so he also justifies the courage and vision of a series of scientists-from a young Beatrix Potter to Lynn Margulis-who were persecuted for believing evolution is as much a matter of interdependence and cooperation as it is great too-little-told tales of evolutionary science.

Customer Reviews:

First rate popular science writing on an important subject .......2005-06-20

_Liaisons of Life_ by Tom Wakeford is a well-researched and very readable book on the importance of symbiosis in ecology and in evolution. Actually, to be more specific, it is a book about the importance of organisms' symbiosis with microbes (whether microbes with microbes or microbes with macroscopic organisms). The central tenets of this wonderful work are first that microbes (be they bacteria, protozoa, or fungi) are one of the most important innovative factors in evolution and are key parts of any ecology; Wakeford believed that the importance of the gene has been overemphasized. Secondly, interdependence among organisms is at least as important (if not more important) than competition between them; most organisms survive only by the "constant management" of their relationships with the microbes in and around them. Far from constant competition, it is often difficult to tell where one organism ends and another begins. Thirdly, this is a dynamic relationship; relationships can change, partners in symbiosis come and go, and the mutalist of today can become the parasite of tomorrow.

The acceptance of the importance of symbiosis and the beneficial role of microbes has been a long time coming. In the nineteenth century microbes first came to the attention of scientists thanks to the efforts of Louis Pasteur. It was he coined the word "germ" and single-handedly brought about the "antibacterial age," a time that lasted for several decades in which scientists saw microbes as things only to be eradicated. Additionally, views about symbiosis became tied up with the politics of the 1920s and 1930s, with bacteria and symbiotic relationships regrettably and very unscientifically becoming tied up with fears about Communism. It did not help that many pioneers in the field hailed from Germany and Russia.

Those who pointed out evidence of symbiosis often were met with derision and ignorant prejudice. Beatrix Potter was hounded out of biology in the 1890s for her views that lichens were made up of the alliance of two organisms; when the London scientific community treated her with disdain if not hatred she became instead a noted children's author and illustrator. Earlier in 1869 the Swiss botanist Simon Schwendener offered his "dual hypothesis" for the taxonomy of lichen, noting that they were both a fungus and an alga; his theories and works were treated with contempt and for a time calling someone a "Schwendenerist" was a term of abuse, meaning someone who waffled between two competing explanations for something. The idea that symbiotic organisms could be passed from one generation to another was for a time discredited thanks to associations with pre-Darwinian French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Wakeford provided numerous fascinating examples of symbiosis in nature. Many species of orchids for instance are so dependent upon fungal symbionts in their roots that they cannot survive without them. In fact mycorrhizal fungi - underground fungi that exist in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of plants - are essential in allowing many plants to get enough of many nutrients (notably phosphate). So essential are they that 90% of the plants on Earth have domesticated their own species of fungus. Mycorrhizal fungi can form vast underground networks, often linking more than one plant together. One researcher by the name of David Perry has said that the sharing of fungal symbionts between trees is so important they form a superorganism, what he termed a "guild." These fungal symbionts are known to allow one tree - perhaps suffering by being overly shaded - to draw upon the nutrients of another tree, thereby constituting a "mycorrhizal welfare state."

In addition to colonizing roots symbionts can colonize other parts of the plant; tall fescue grass, a dominant grass in the United States, has a species of fungus (_Acremonium_) that grows in the spaces between the grass's cells. This symbiont offers resistance to drought, increases seed production, and produces toxic alkaloid compounds that put off plant-eaters. So intimate is the relationship that grass seeds are infected while still in the seed coat.

Other examples of symbiosis in nature include the relationships of deep sea organisms with bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria, chemosynthetic symbiotic sulfide bacteria living in _Riftia_ tube worms around hydrothermal vents, the bacteria that allow shipworms and termites to digest wood (or in the case of anobiid beetles, it is a yeast-like fungus that allows them to eat wood), and the bacteria and protozoa ecosystem that exists in the four-chambered stomachs of ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and deer that allow these animals to digest grass. The most important examples of symbiosis though are undoubtedly the acquisition in eukaryotic cells of chloroplasts and mitochondria, a momentous evolutionary event, an example of an extremely intimate and permanent form of intracellular symbiosis which Wakeford skillfully explained.

Many species very actively manage their microbial associates. Corals bleach themselves - bleaching being the loss of the coral's symbionts, called _Symbiodinium_ - as a natural strategy to deal with changing environmental conditions. They do this to alter the makeup of their symbionts, to allow themselves to be repopulated by a new type of associate, one that perhaps is better suited for a changed environment. Researchers have discovered that leaf-cutter ants are continually domesticating new varieties of fungi by taking them into their nests; 862 types of nest fungi have been discovered, with evidence that ants periodically swap crop varieties with their neighbors.

As noted, the continuum between beneficial symbiont and parasite is a rather fuzzy continuum. Orchids for instance produce natural fungicides to keep their root symbionts from colonizing their stems; these and other plants can be overrun by their symbionts if they become weakened or malnourished. David Philip, the famous "bubble boy," had to live in a sterile environment because his body had no ability to cohabit with the numerous microbial associates in the human body (symbiotic bacteria make up a tenth of our body's weight and totaling 90 trillion cells outnumber our own body cells nine to one). If the intestines of any human are damaged formerly beneficial symbiotic microbes can create a life-threatening infection called sepsis.

Darwin would be fascinated.......2003-06-02

Natural selection is a powerful force, but I have long suspected that other factors were involved in the evolution of life. One of these factors is the tendency for organisms to form partnerships (symbiotic relationships that may benefit both). Often this starts as parasitism, but may become (through natural selection perhaps) a mutual dependency. Wakeford has eloquently summarized the growing evidence in this area. Lichens are one notable example which were ignored by most 19th Century researchers. Indeed, as Wakeford points out the Swiss botanist Simon Schwendener and the well-known children's book writer Beatrix Potter had shown that lichens are composite organisms, consisting of both fungus and alga. Both Schwendener and Potter were ridiculed by the scientific society of the day, but were later shown to be essentially correct in their views. Since then other scientists, including Lynn Margulis, have produced solid evidence that all multicellular organisms are essentially composite organisms, containing organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts that were once independent organisms in their own right.

Together with new developments in genomic research involving the switching on and switching off of genes these ideas will certainly alter our thinking about biology. Because of this I think we will soon have a totally revolutionary view of how life originated and evolved. Not all of Darwin's ideas will survive and many if not most may be modified (as some already have been), but I think that Darwin, who was the ultimate in curious scientists, would have approved!

I recommend this book as a well-written very good introduction to the idea of symbiotic evolution.

Genuinely fun to read.......2002-09-02

This book is a delightful tour through the realm of symbiosis at the microbial level. The author describes one incredible symbiotic relationship after another, in creatures ranging from bivalves to wild orchids.

Even though it appears to be aimed at the average reader, he does not 'dumb down' the text. (This is why I gave it the 5th star.) Latin species names are often used and words like 'oligotrich' and 'mycorrhizae' are strewn throughout the book, yet are explained well enough to make any science-phobe feel at home.

The book really focuses on describing symbiosis by example, and the non-trivial role of the microbial partners in those relationships. He also casts off the simplistic and anthropomorphic idea of "competition" in nature for a more natural, inclusive view. There is not much mention of Gaia (which is fine by me), and the latter part of the book relating to microbial symbiosis and evolution seems to pretty much recapitulate Lynn Margulis' theory of symbiogenesis.

(If symbiosis intrigues you, also see Lynn Margulis' "Acquiring Genomes" book for a more complete description of the intriguing theory of symbiogenesis, or Gerald Tannock's books for a professional-level description of all those hundreds of bacterial critters that occupy the human intestinal tract.)

We and the microbes are one.......2002-05-25

This book is about symbiosis and how prevalent it is. It is also about how politicized the concept has been historically. From the experience of nineteenth-century biologist and illustrator Beatrix Potter whose identification of lichen as symbionts went against the established dogma as filtered through the ideas of Pasteur, to "anti-communist" biology as practiced by some Western scientists who saw symbiosis as supporting the collective, it is amazing how purely political ideas successfully censored the scientific. Symbiosis has even been thought of as "feminine" and contrary to the noble interpretation of Darwinism as the survival of the fittest.

But Wakeford is able (after a fashion) to go beyond the politics and demonstrate in a most convincing manner that the symbiotic way of life is vastly more important and enormously more widespread than is usually imagined. Most of us know that legumes work symbiotically with rhizobia bacteria to fix nitrogen in the soil so that it is available to the plant, but what surprised me is to learn that 90 percent of plants host mycorrhizal fungi (p. 167) and are therefore symbionts. As Wakeford asks on the same page, "Can we continue to simply call them plants without acknowledging their fungal dimension? Is a cow an animal or a microbial fermentation vessel, when without the microbes, the cow would not exist?"

Good questions, and indeed, what about humans who have microbes in our guts that help us to digest our food? Are we in symbiosis with those microbes? Without the beneficial bacteria in our guts, the harmful bacteria would run rampant and we would be led to disease. Ants are not merely ants, they are farmers who harvest fungi gardens. They and the fungi are in symbiosis, living together, dependent upon one another for their survival. And what about termites, creatures who harbor microbes to digest the wood they eat? The broad, general message of this book is that cooperation between species is at least as important in evolution as is competition.

Reading this made me think that perhaps the idea of competition in evolution is merely an anthropomorphic delusion. Certainly Wakeford shows that our notions about parasites and who is feeding on whom, may be in error. He writes, "Rather than discrete categories, the terms _mutualist_, _parasite_, and _pathogen_ are better seen as fuzzy points on a continuum, along the length of which an association between two organisms may fluctuate. For many associations, the point they occupy on this continuum is as difficult to assess as it is to say who gains more...in a marriage between two human partners." (p. 184)

There is an old saying, that I got from somewhere years ago. It is, "Everything works toward a symbiosis." This book not only supports that idea, it even, taken further, supports the idea of Gaia, namely that all the living creatures on this planet form a single organism. I don't necessary believe this, the "strong" Gaia hypothesis, but I think the distinction between a planet that harbors organisms and a planet that is itself part organism, may be more a semantic distinction than anything else.

Because of all we have learned about microbial life in recent decades, it is becoming clearer and clearer that no organism is an island, and indeed, all of life is in symbiosis with the microorganisms that constitute the largest, most viable life form on this planet. Realizing this while reading Wakeford's fascinating arguments, I had a thought: the little green men from outer space are probably symbionts themselves, but more fully realized ones, like lichen, part "animal" and part "plant," deriving their energy directly through photosynthesis. And suddenly I had a vision of beings all seated as in meditation, taking a break to open the top of their heads, filled not with brains, but with cells capable of turning light into nourishment. How primitive and clumsy we might appear by comparison!

Bacteria Are Our Friends.......2002-03-12

Bacteria and fungi really get a bad rap. We generally think of them as belonging to George Bush's axis of evil. As a matter of fact, says author Tom Wakeford, the majority of these mini creatures are essential for life. This is an easy to read, highly accessible little volume on symbiosis. Symbiosis involves two or more life forms combining their efforts to add to the life benefit of each.

At the beginning of the book we bump into, of all people, Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit fame. She was actually a biologist who subscribed to the then dissident theory that some organisms were combinations of two separate entities. She believed that lichens, those lumpy gray/green things on rocks and tree trunks, were composed of a fungus and an alga. Her scientific peers were so scornful of this belief that she ultimately quit biology, and consoled herself by writing. This career change could be considered good or bad, depending on whether you are fascinated by lichens or prefer to read books about Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.

We learn of the interesting symbiosis between plants, fungi, and bacteria. Nitrogen fixing bacteria provide the plants with necessary, accessible nitrogen. Part of the problem that plants then face is finding the rest of the nutrients that they need. They simply can't grow huge root systems to search and find patches of underground food. Various fungi solve this problem by linking up with plants. They then send tiny tendrils far afield that discover the nutrients and send them to the plant roots. Orchids in the tropics have become endangered species. People dig them up and send them to collectors in the other parts of the world. They are then planted in gardens where they promptly die. They require a certain fungus to survive, and that fungus is found only in the habitat where they originally grew.

The book is full of tales of symbiotic science. How do some insects thrive on nutrients from leaves that they can neither chew nor digest? What bacteria live in our bodies, and how do they help us? This is one of those great science books that both teach and entertain.

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