Description
The great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once wrote, I know of no familiar substance forming part of our every-day knowledge and experience, the examination of which, with a little care, tends to open up such very considerable issues as does yeast. Huxley was right. Beneath the very
foundations of human civilization lies yeast--also known as the sugar fungus. Yeast is responsible for fermenting our alcohol and providing us with bread--the very staples of life. Moreover, it has proven instrumental in helping cell biologists and geneticists understand how living things work,
manufacturing life-saving drugs, and producing biofuels that could help save the planet from global warming. In The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money--author of Mushroom and The Amoeba in the Room--argues that we cannot ascribe too much importance to yeast, and that its discovery and controlled use profoundly altered human history. Humans knew what yeast did long before they knew what it was. It was not
until Louis Pasteur's experiments in the 1860s that scientists even acknowledged its classification as a fungus. A compelling blend of science, history, and sociology The Rise of Yeast explores the rich, strange, and utterly symbiotic relationship between people and yeast, a stunning and immensely
readable account that takes us back to the roots of human history.
Author: Nicholas P. Money
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/29/2018
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780190270711
ISBN10: 0190270713
BISAC Categories:
- Science | Life Sciences | Microbiology
- Science | Life Sciences | Biology
foundations of human civilization lies yeast--also known as the sugar fungus. Yeast is responsible for fermenting our alcohol and providing us with bread--the very staples of life. Moreover, it has proven instrumental in helping cell biologists and geneticists understand how living things work,
manufacturing life-saving drugs, and producing biofuels that could help save the planet from global warming. In The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money--author of Mushroom and The Amoeba in the Room--argues that we cannot ascribe too much importance to yeast, and that its discovery and controlled use profoundly altered human history. Humans knew what yeast did long before they knew what it was. It was not
until Louis Pasteur's experiments in the 1860s that scientists even acknowledged its classification as a fungus. A compelling blend of science, history, and sociology The Rise of Yeast explores the rich, strange, and utterly symbiotic relationship between people and yeast, a stunning and immensely
readable account that takes us back to the roots of human history.
Author: Nicholas P. Money
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/29/2018
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780190270711
ISBN10: 0190270713
BISAC Categories:
- Science | Life Sciences | Microbiology
- Science | Life Sciences | Biology
About the Author
Nicholas P. Money is Western Program Director and Professor of Botany at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.