Microorganism Three-dimensional Book “How can such small beings be so important?” Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said this about the creatures living in the microworld.
However, because the minimum focusing distance of our eyes is so long and the resolution is so low, most life on Earth is too small to be seen with the naked eye. Each plant and animal has a variety of cells adapted to perform special functions to sustain life.
The simplest single-celled microorganisms, such as bacteria, look indistinguishably the same, but their genetic and chemical makeup is so diverse that, from an evolutionary perspective, some are plants and others are animals. Microorganisms are often single-celled, but even ‘giant’ organisms are made up of cells so small that they need to be viewed under a microscope.
In this book, you can encounter a unique microscopic world realized with cutting-edge equipment and the latest technology.
The illustrated encyclopedia series ‘Plants’, ‘Animals’, ‘Oceans’, and ‘Microorganisms’ published by Science Books are the best-selling encyclopedia series published with great acclaim in over 10 countries around the world and are available at the Smithsonian Museum in the United States. , is the fruit of collaboration between world-renowned natural history research institutions such as the British Natural History Museum and Dorling Kindersley (DK), a renowned British publishing company.
『Micro Life』, published this time by Science Books, is the latest work. If the previous books dealt with plants, animals, and marine life that we can see and touch with our eyes, this book deals with things that cannot be seen without the help of advanced scientific and technological equipment such as electron microscopes, but which have a huge impact on our lives and nature. It deals with the world of microscopic creatures that have an impact.
Naturalist, science writer, and photographer Chris Packham opens the preface to ‘Microorganisms’ following ‘Animals’ and ‘Oceans’ and guides readers into microscopic ecosystems, as well as ‘Invisible Powers’ and ‘Science behind the Wall’. Professor Emeritus Lee Jae-yeol of the Department of Life Sciences at Kyungpook National University, who has led the popularization of microbial science through his writing, was in charge of supervising the Korean version.
700 optical and electron microscopic photos magnified from 1,000 times to 1,000,000 times and dense explanations of scientific facts explain everything from the oxygen molecule exchange process that occurs in the human lung alveoli to how bacteria and viruses such as E. coli infect normal cells. Shiki captures not only the scene of an infectious disease, but also all kinds of scenes from the world of microorganisms, including the fluffy feet of a mountain ant spider hanging on a grass using interactions between chemical molecules such as van der Waals forces.
Every time readers turn the pages of this book, they will be shocked by the sight of an unimaginable world of smiles.
There are over 1.2 million species of life on Earth, but most of the millions of species of life yet to be discovered belong to the microscopic world. Methods for exploring cells have developed along with the latest technology. Light micrography (LM), which collects light using traditional glass lenses, magnifies objects up to 1,000 times. Electron microscopes focused with electromagnetic ‘lenses’ use electron beams with much smaller wavelengths to increase magnification up to 1 million times.
Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) transmits electrons through a thin section of a specimen, while scanning electron micrograph (SEM) obtains a three-dimensional effect by scanning a solid specimen with an electron beam. This book examines the basis of all life forms through cutting-edge scientific images, from SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic) with a diameter of only 0.1 micrometers (one trillionth of a meter) to the complex structures of hair follicles and pollen. exquisitely composes overwhelming photos and elaborate infographics and condenses the functions of living things in the micro-ecosystem into eight types, leading readers into the world of micro-organisms. As an appendix, the Korean version includes four postcards of microscopic creatures and an ‘Encyclopedia of Microscopic Creatures’ containing 380 photographs and miniature paintings of various microscopic creatures.
Copyright © Gyeongbuk Ilbo – Good Day Good News Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited
View other articles by Reporter Kwak Seong-il
