A Planet of Viruses [ハードカバー]

Interesting things happen when physicists decide to go into biological research. They ask questions that biologists generally won't. For example, viruses have small genomes, but they also have very small storage space in their capsids. Bacteriophages inject their genetic material into the bacteria they infect like a combination of a lunar lander and a syringe. How much force does the coiled bacteriophage DNA have? As it turns out, bacteriophages pack quite a punch. The force required to insert the DNA into the capsid is fairly large, and requires quite a bit of ATP, stolen from the host cells by the infected virus before the cell is killed.

Carl Zimmer's new book, A Planet of Viruses borrows its delivery technique from its subjects: in less than 100 pages, A Planet of Viruses packs quite a punch of information. The eradication of smallpox, the rise of HIV, the immigration of West Nile virus to the western hemisphere, the viruses in our genomes and the recent discovery mysteriously huge mimivirus are all treated here in delightfully short essays describing the impact of viruses on mankind and on life in general. To some of these topics Zimmer brings refreshing perspectives. He proposes that the common cold virus, an unwelcome companion of man since ancient history, should be treated like a wise old tutor rather than an ancient enemy. Then he explains why we haven't truly eradicated smallpox, and probably never will. Viruses, hovering between life and non-life have an impact on life so large it is hard to fathom. Viruses kill about half of marine microbes every day. Their sheer biomass ("...equal to [that of] 75 million blue whales"), huge host range, mind-boggling number of particles in the biosphere and, above all, the genetic diversity which is unmatched by all other life combined. They infect more than our cells: many are contained in our very genomes, transferred from generation to generation.

Having read the book in one sitting, I felt a bit lightheaded when I rose to drink my (now cold) coffee. Like compressed viral DNA injected into the host cell, the movement of this concentration of information from a small book into my brain had an almost palpable effect. As a microbiologist I knew quite a few of these stories about viruses, I just never had them put together in front of me in such a readable and concentrated fashion. Unlike larger books, which may be more elaborate on any single theme, Zimmer's small book delivers its viral DNA in a short, sharp shock. I am happy to have been infected, and I recommend you do the same.

Reproduced from bytesizebio.net under Creative Commons License.

I enjoyed this slim, short volume. It was well written and took some interesting directions, but in the end I was disappointed with its "Science Lite" approach. Most people who pick up a book like this are science buffs if not scientists and can take a much deeper and rewarding information load on board. I would recommend this volume for a middle school library, nothing more. That said, I would really like to see what this author can do if he explored the world of viruses on a more extensive, demanding level.

I enjoyed reading this slender volume and finished reading it much too soon.
I won't repeat the content decription that the other reviewers have already given.
However I do think that the author could have written a great deal more on the origin of viruses. There are a few tantalizing hints but nothing more. Do they descend from something like the mimivirus and have lost a lot of their genes on their way? Or did they start that way? How does one explain the difference between Virus with DNA and RNA?