I Contain Multitudes

Shortlisted for The Wellcome Book Prize 2017Shortlisted for The Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017Selected as a New York Times Non-Fiction Book of the Year When Orson Welles said ‘we’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone’, he was mistaken. Even when we are alone, we are never alone. We exist in symbiosis… Your body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It's an entire world, a colony full of life. In other words, you contain multitudes. They sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us with their genes. They also hold the key to understanding all life on earth. In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see yourself. ‘I Contain Multitudes has a terrific story to tell. For the last quarter-century or so, microbiologists have been exploring what may amount to a new view of life, full of fascination and self-contradiction.’ – The New York Times ‘The sure-footedness of the writing is a joy, but also instils confidence, as does Yong’s renunciation of the breathless wonder that sometimes infects popular science writing.’ – The Guardian