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and references for further reading at the end of the book. The final chapter includes descriptions of instructors who find improvements in student learning from implementing the evidence-based learning strategies in the book, as well as a useful summary of learning tips for students, life-long learners (all of us), teachers, and trainers. For example, the authors recommend that teachers explain to students how people learn, teach students how to study, use frequent announced low-stakes quizzes and practice exercises that include both new and previously covered concepts, and include opportunities for reflection. In addition to clear benefits to the students, these strategies benefit the teacher as students display improved attendance, better class preparation, and improved attention during class. Furthermore, frequent quizzes provide valuable feedback on student performance for the teacher to adjust instruction. Make it Stick is an excellent book on learning and memory, and I recommend it for both teachers and students who want to better understand how learning occurs and how to study effectively. Heidi M. Sleister Drake University, Des Moines, IA E-mail:
[email protected] Overuse of Antibiotics: A Voice (with Multiple Agendas) Crying Out in the Microbial Wilderness DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.793 Review of: Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling our Modern Plagues; Martin J. Blaser; (2014). Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY. 273 pages. As a committed “Microbial Supremacist” in the classroom, laboratory, and for all who will listen, I am constantly on the lookout for books that present matters microbial to non-microbiologists. Thus, it is a pleasure to review this book by the extensively-published microbiologist and physician Martin Blaser, director of the Human Microbiome Program at New York University. This is an interesting book I recommend, with a few caveats discussed in a moment. I found Blaser a skilled prose stylist, targeting this compulsively readable book toward the Scientific American reading public: student and interested reader will find it of interest (as did I). For good or ill, the term “bacteria” has negative connotations for many (I invite readers to survey their classes on this topic). Blaser pulls no punches regarding microbial-based diseases, but also underscores the centrality of bacteria. Further, it is not a matter of “demonic” pathogens or “angelic” probiotics, but instead ecological balance. He introduces the term “amphibiosis” (courtesy of Theodore Rosebury http://www. biologyaspoetry.com/terms/amphibiosis.html), meaning even a single type of microbe can act either positively or negatively, depending on the “context.” There have been other books that guide the reader into the wonders of the microbial world, but Blaser has a Volume 15, Number 2
mission with several aspects. First, the title might make a reader suspect that the subject is restricted to antibiotics, but it is about far more than that. The author argues persuasively that we are “walking ecologies” and that our burgeoning microbial communities are part of us, echoing the “metaorganism” concept of eukaryotic life championed by Margaret McFall-Ngai (1) and others (http://schaechter. asmblog.org/schaechter/2013/04/whose-planet-is-itanyway-1.html). He goes on to promote the paradigm that our “internal ecologies” can have diverse impacts on us, depending on the structure of the communities within. Finally, Blaser uses the first two threads in this book to explore the negative roles that antibiotics may play, despite their clear utility, and their decreasing effectiveness in the treatment of many bacterial infections. It was remarkable to read a physician-scientist repeatedly emphasize ecological aspects of disease! In each of the 16 chapters, Blaser begins discussions with his extensive medical experience. The author is both deft and engaging in his writing, from an introduction to the microbial world, to a whirlwind tour of the human microbiome, to issues revolving around his double-edged Helicobacter pylori, to complex and shifting “microbial ecological” aspects of human disease, to the possibility that some of our “modern plagues” of the title (obesity, asthma, etc.) may result in part from microbial imbalance, and finally to the role that overuse of antibiotics may play in such dysbiosis (and perhaps some solutions). I do have a few cautions. Blaser tends to state controversial issues as too dogmatic, such as claims that the microbiota influence human height directly. In our current enthusiasm for the roles that microbes play in complex phenomena, I would urge great care, as overstatement born of enthusiasm can quickly lead to public distrust of science. The “Notes” section could have been more expansive and referenced (as when the author describes gut microbes as making a “type of Valium” or that some gut microbes in humans fix nitrogen). Overall, I would highly recommend this book to the non-microbiologist to promote a microbial and ecological view of human health and disease. It is useful to students and instructors from a variety of biological perspectives, both at introductory and advanced levels, as its clear arguments and interesting style can promote microbiology as a centerpiece of all biology. For example, I have always felt that no ecology-minded student should avoid microbiology, and this book powerfully favors that sentiment. Martin Blaser is certainly a passionate and eloquent promoter (dare I say a “trailblazer”?) of a microbial worldview well worth a reader’s time.
REFERENCES 1. McFall-Ngai, M. 2013. Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 110(9):3229–3236.
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Mark O. Martin University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA E-mail:
[email protected] Getting to Know Your Microbiota in Health and Disease DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.772 Review of: The Human Microbiota: How Microbial Communities Affect Health and Disease; David N. Fredricks (ed.); (2013). John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ. 362 pages. The Human Microbiota: How Microbial Communities Affect Health and Disease is an excellent resource that is perfectly timed on the heels of the vast amount of information that has been generated by the Human Microbiome Project. As outlined in the introductory chapter of this book, the Human Microbiome Project, launched in 2008, was a global effort to characterize the immense array of microorganisms living in and on the human body. This enormous endeavor involved the efforts of microbiologists (from microbial ecologists to infectious disease experts), geneticists, and computational biologists (see Fig. 1.1, p 6) among other experts from around the world including the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Some of these same experts are the authors and contributors of each chapter in this book. While you do not need to be one of these experts to appreciate the rich content that this book provides, fundamental background knowledge in microbiology, immunology, cell, and molecular biology is needed. Beyond that, this book is logically organized and the reader is guided through the advent of the Human Microbiome Project (Chapter 1), followed by methodology (Chapters 2–4); then the reader is submerged in the results of this project in subsequent chapters dedicated to the microbial niches of the human body (Chapters 5 and 9: Gastrointestinal Tract; Chapter 6: Respiratory Tract; Chapter 7: Oral Cavity; Chapter 8: Genitourinary Tract). Ironically, there is no chapter solely devoted to the Integumentary System, the
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largest organ system in the human body, but there is a small section on Skin Diseases and the Microbiome (p 22–23). Within each chapter the content is further organized into sections and sub-sections with interspersed figures, graphs, charts, photographs, and flow diagrams, each of which makes the content more tangible. For example, the latter facilitates the comprehension of analytical sections (e.g. Fig. 4.1: Analysis of Metagenomic Data, p 87). The chapters on the body regions nicely provide an overview of the anatomy (e.g. Fig. 7.1: The Human Oral Cavity, p 137), followed by the microbiome data (e.g. Fig. 8.3: Vaginal Microbiota, p 179) and the implications of this data in human health and disease (e.g. Diabetes (p 153) and Obesity (p 154)). These chapters are full of vibrant photographs illustrating the interactions of the microbiome with human cells (e.g. Fig. 9.42: Biofilm Between the Villi of a Patient with Crohn’s Disease). Each chapter is completed with an acknowledgments section and an extensive reference list. The book ends with chapters on animal models (Chapters 10 and 11) and tools (Chapters 12 and 13) to study the human microbiome. The final chapter is current and very relevant with ways to alter the microbiome with prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics (Chapter 14). Altogether The Human Microbiota: How Microbial Communities Affect Health and Disease is a great resource for both faculty and students. In terms of teaching, however, this book is not recommended as a stand-alone textbook for undergraduate courses. Rather this book works well as supplementary reading material for senior-level majors courses since it is very easy to assign sections or subsections of the book. As a faculty member or graduate student, this book is an invaluable reference resource as you can easily flip through it to find indispensible sections on sample collection and data analysis of the microbiome and human diseases. This is an exciting new reference resource that will be on my bookshelf and used often. Narveen Jandu Ashland University, Ashland, OH E-mail:
[email protected]
Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
Volume 15, Number 2
