A measured account on the current developments in microbiome science. Doesn’t hype it too much, doesn’t undersell either.

I was happy to find out that bacteria proudly advertised on yogurts are actually not the best choice and why.

Creating a good and balanced environment in hospitals and not just scorching them with disinfection inadvertently tied up with the previous book I’ve read, “Brave new work”, and makes a lot of sense, raising a thousand questions.

Designing bacteria is another intriguing, if somewhat terrifying, idea. And different mechanisms of co-living with microbes are interesting from the system design perspective.

That said, I was missing some sort of overarching narrative or at least a line along which all the chapters would go. It’s nice as a collection of essays.

★★★☆☆

(368 pages, ISBN: 0062368591, Worldcat, Open Library)