NEVER HOME ALONE by Rob Dunn

Rob Dunn . Unknown Year . English

A natural history of the wilderness in our homes, from the microbes in our showers to the crickets in our basements Even when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters. You are not alone. Yet, as we obsess over sterilizing our homes and separating our spaces from nature, we are unwittingly cultivating an entirely new playground for evolution. These changes are reshaping the organisms that live with us -- prompting some to become more dangerous, while undermining those species that benefit our bodies or help us keep more threatening organisms at bay. No one who reads this engrossing, revelatory book will look at their homes in the same way again.

Categories: History

About the Author

Rob Dunn is the author of eight books dealing, variously, with the the unknown world, the life on human bodies, the evolution and study of human hearts, the threats to our crops, the biodiversity in homes, the evolution of flavor, the future of life and, most recently, human mutualisms with other species. Dunn is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist by training, with interests that spill over into nearly everything. He is a Reynolds Professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at NC State University. He also serves as the Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs. Dunn began his career studying ants and the species that live with ants. Over time, he came to also study humans and the species that live with humans. This work has led him to the far reaches into the Bolivian Amazon and, also, into the deep recesses of human belly buttons. His current research considers the evolution of ant societies, the ecology of sourdough bread, the use of yeasts from wasps in making new kinds of beers and the value of trees to cities.

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