The new book chronizes the science of life in the air

Air-Carrier
Carl Zimmer
Dutton, $ 32

March 10, 2020. As they sang, the microscopic germ passed by air. Before the end of the month, 58 members were infected and five were seriously ill. Throughout the United States, the virus broke through the devastation. Within a few weeks, thousands of people died, schools and companies closed, and 700,000 people lost their job.

Many scientists in 2020 found that the coronavirus had spread through the airBut they should have long than months of public health agencies to admit it. The Skagit District Surface Surface Assistant World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers to consider the transfer of the Kovid-19 in the air. But to this day, some scientists believe that delay in calling the air virus was a mistake – one that stopped vital public health measures and allowed the disease to spread faster. In his new book, Air -nd airScientific journalist Carl Zimmer Roots “Error” in the past historically neglected field: aerobiology or air life science.

Zimmer begins his chronicle in the 19th century with Louis PasteurSummit is a raised glacier in the French Alps. As part of a large experiment, the microbiologist shifted a glass chamber in the sky, inserted his life and proved that microscopic germs were floating in the air. Pasteur’s discovery inspired generations of scientists to seek life in the air, including pathologist Fred Meier, who broke out Petra dishes from various aircraft and eventually called the field.

Through stories of Pasteur, Meier and dozens of other scientists, Zimmer has been flawlessly weaved for centuries of aerobiological science. He richly humanizes the characters honestly and complex, at the same time emphasizing the publicly appreciated and unregulated. His crowds, impact and approachable language gives life to glamorous experiments, such as those who have been carried out of hot air balloons, as well as tireless ones running in university cellars.

But aerobiology is more than scientific joy in heaven. The field is congested in the darkest moments of humanity, which Zimmer pulls out of the shadow and in light. Aerobiologists were central in discussions about how life diseases such as black deaths, cholera and tuberculosis were expanded. While some scientists have worked to fight infections in the air, others have committed themselves to their creation, Zimmer writes. During World War II, the United States was one of several countries that created biological weapons. Some American researchers have helped the construction of the arsenals of deadly germs and disputes to be potentially used against the enemy of the nation. Years after the war, aerobiology remained in secret and was mostly neglected by public health officials. Only Coidid-19 began to change.

Readers will end the book with a better understanding of how high life can fly and how much public knowledge of aerobiology has come. The reminder is that the current decisions that people make in connection with the air life inform the deep history. Zimmer concludes his chronicle with a vision of harmonious coexistence with life in the atmosphere: “As long as there is life on Earth, it will fly, and as long as we are here, we will breathe.”

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