Slime: natural history
To Suzanne Wedrich
Translated by Ayça Türkoğlu
Melville House, 2023 ($27.99)
of slime: natural history, Science journalist Susanne Wedlich preempts reader backlash. “We are all creatures of slime,” she writes on page two of hers, but the mere mention of the name is enough to evoke a sense of illness, death, and other taboo experiences of modern “ultra-hygienic” living. implying an image. look. Wedlich seeks to change her perception of slime from disgust to fascination.
As such, the book quickly takes on a persuasive tone, and Wedrich dismantles negative preconceptions. A literary and sociological analysis of slime visits references from films such as: alien When Ghost Busters And Vladimir Nabokov’s novel lolita, This is a metaphor for “everything that can be dangerous, disgusting, and simply wrong about sex” to the 19th-century campaign for sanitary reform and the aversion to strong odors as signs of filthiness. am.
This compelling cultural overview takes the reader into the more scientific part where things get a little trickier.Definition of slime teeth “It may be as slippery as the matter itself.” While the ancient Egyptians thought of mud and mud as the source of life, the Darwinist Ernst Haeckel suggested that a primordial slime on the ocean floor contributed to the origin of life. It wasn’t until I hypothesized that the mucus that the
To date, many biological slimes have not been studied sufficiently to know the details of their structure and behavior. You can have a wide field of view. “
This smart decision will shape the rest of the story. Snails that surf their own mucus for forward propulsion, digestive secretions that help protect the body through mucosal immunity, and produce “marine snow”, a constant shower of organic rain that delivers energy to the deep ocean. We hear about bioadhesives. Her Wedlich knack for developing these natural histories makes her book ooze with charm. —Michael Welch
Darkness Manifesto: On light pollution, night ecology, and the ancient rhythms that sustain life
By Johann Ekloff.Translated by Elizabeth Denoma
Scribner, 2023 ($26)
Swedish environmentalist Johan Eklöf urges us to think of light pollution as more than a nuisance that obscures the starry sky. In a series of well-researched vignettes, his message is a plea to non-human species. Artificial light disrupts migration patterns, mating rituals, pollination practices, insect biomass, and more. Eklöf highlights the surprising breadth of these little-known results without evoking a despairing or cynical tone. Instead, this book is a reminder that our world domination is as delicate as the smallest species affected by it.Sam Miller
Wilderness Story: 40 Wild Stories from North America
Edited by Diana Huss
Knopp, 2023 ($35)
Featuring authors such as James Fenimore Cooper, Karen Russell, and Anthony Doerr, this anthology charts contemporary courses through long-established genres. An unconventional selection of wild narratives, from swamps to tundra, from Plymouth Rock to today’s crisis point in the Anthropocene, the complex evolution of our societies’ relationships with wild places and the changes we talk about them. Editor Diana Huss organizes the book around various themes such as ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘Woman and Leopard’, but all the stories are ‘where the wilderness is It asks us to revisit what it means and why it drives us.Dana Dunham
We are electric: Inside and the future of the 200-year quest for our body’s bioelectrical code
Sally Addie
Hachette Books, 2023 ($30)
Ten years ago, journalist Sally Adee briefly became a sniper in a mock military operation when researchers ran an electrical current through her brain. The experience left Adee with many questions. In her debut book, she explores 200 years of research into the bioelectricity that flows through our bodies, from a discussion of frog leg cramps to devices developed to restore sensation to people with traumatic nerve injuries. In this bioelectric age, Adee argues that “we are full-dimensional electrical machines” and ripe for discovery. —Fiona MD Samuels
