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    Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys
    Unavailable
    Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys
    Unavailable
    Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys
    Ebook371 pages5 hours

    Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys

    By Dr. Rob Dunn

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    “If you have any interest in life beyond your own, you should read this book.”
    —Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Dominant Animal

     

    Biologist Rob Dunn’s Every Little Thing is the story of man’s obsessive quest to catalog life, from nanobacteria to new monkeys. In the tradition of E.O. Wilson, this engaging and fascinating work of popular science follows humanity’s unending quest to discover every living thing in our natural world—from the unimaginably small in the most inhospitable of places on earth to the unimaginably far away in the unexplored canals on Mars.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061979743
    Author

    Dr. Rob Dunn

    Rob Dunn is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University and the author of several books, including Every Living Thing. A rising star in popular-science journalism, he writes for National Geographic, Natural History, Scientific American, BBC Wildlife, and Seed magazine. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with many thousands of wild species, including at least one species of mite living on his head.

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    Reviews for Every Living Thing

    4/5

    25 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book is a readable retracing of the classification of life from the Enlightenment to the present. The author does not attempt to be exhaustive, but focuses on crucial characters and controversies that have led to major revisions in the way we view the world. Dunn makes a compelling case that how we classify and organize living organisms is crucial to understanding our attitude toward our environment and our place in the universe. Enjoyable, understandable for the average educated reader. I once considered becoming a biologist, and this book reminded me why.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book, which looks at scientists through the ages, many of whom are more than a little bit dotty. Especially Linnaeus, of course. I learned a lot about archaea and nanobacteria (or maybe nanons, the jury's still out on the ultimate nomenclature), but mostly this book is about hubris, about the depth and breadth of our ignorance, and about those visionaries clutching guttering candles in the dark. Dunn is humorous without being snarky, respectful without being obsequious, and a damn fine writer. He points out with a certain degree of asperity how, in science, it seems true that whatever everyone knows for certain is sure to be proven false later. Highly recommended for anyone interested in life itself, in all its mysterious and magnificent forms, of which we may be the least interesting after all.
    • 5/5
      More than anything, this is a book about the thirst for knowledge, about the indomitable desire to know more, about the insatiable curiosity that drives the most passionate scientists. Not so much a story of life as a series of stories of scientists. Vaguely obsessed, not entirely normal, they could have walked right out of The Big Bang Theory, and yet just like the TBBT characters, they are lovable and you can't help rooting for them. Dunn tells us about scientists with all their hubris and flaw, and all their simultaneous passion, in a style that adds a healthy dose of irony and a deadpan delivery that turns what could seem like boring stories of ants and beetle into hilarious snapshots of life.Of particular amusement to me, as someone who lives with Asperger's syndrome, were repeated moments by Dunn where he wonders about how it is possible for someone to become so incredibly obsessed with small things to the exclusion of all others. I had to constantly repress the need to figuratively grab the man by the lapels and shake him until his teeth fell out.