Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys

by Rob Dunn

Book Overview

"If you have any interest in life beyond your own, you should read this book." --Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Dominant Animal Biologist Rob Dunn's Every Little Thing is the story of man's obsessive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061430307
• ISBN13: 9780061430305
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

"Every Living Thing" - a Must Read for Every Obsessing Scientist

Depending on who you are Dunn's book is either about biology or psychology or consciousness. As a book about biology, "Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life" is a fascinating story of discovery. As a book about psychology, Dunn's book is about the dialectics of obsessing and resilience. The "protagonists" of this slow race to catalogue every living thing present as obsessives who have successfully sublimated their fixations and cognitive inflexibilities into unique scientific careers. As a book about human consciousness, Dunn's work reveals the evolutionary advantage and the existential precariousness of the human tendency to label and categorize. As a psychologist reading this book, I find it to be an amazing study of the kaleidoscopic complexity of human motives and processes that, in totality, constitute a given "living thing." Skillfully organized, with a "homeopathic" dose of dry humor (that spices up the reading just in time), replete with insights about human nature, "Every Living Thing" is an excellent mirror for every obsessing scientist (inventor/go-it-alone entrepreneur). [...]

Excellent stories of scientific discovery

This is a very entertaining story of how, since Linnaeus and Leuwenhoek, scientists have discovered vast new unknown realms of life: single-celled life, bacteria, archaea, insects of the tropical forest canopy, and more. What is stunning is how much of the world has been hidden "in plain sight" waiting for someone with the imagination just to stop and look, and the drive to keep looking. One remarkable fact: microscopes had been invented and were available for a century or so before cells and micro-organisms were even noticed. How many more major discoveries are out there still waiting to be made? Probably more than a few. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes good popular science reading (scientists included!). It's an entertaining narrative that introduces you to fascinating characters who have made major biological discoveries, many of whom you've probably heard of and some likely not. By bringing the reader into the moment of discovery and the personal real life of the discoverers, this book captures the perspective of the explorer and the struggle that's often involved in getting answers and convincing the world they're true.

Enjoyable, informative, and inspirational

Rob Dunn's "Every Living Thing" is an engaging read. It broadened my view of characters, both human and biological, that I thought I already knew, and it introduced me to fascinating characters, both human and biological, that I hadn't already met. More than this, the stick-to-it-iveness of Dunn's human protagonists is inspirational for any scientist engaged in a personal quest. Whether your own quest features monkeys, mites, microbes, or molecules, you'll enjoy Dunn's stories of pioneering, determined, deeply motivated scientists and the ideas that drove them on.