Author Description

Focus on Bacteria shows that nature has a quality of beauty even in her smallest manifestations. Aesthetic considerations have therefore more or less decided the choice of the photographs. However, most of the constituent elements of bacteria can be seen in the pictures presented. Brief information on the structure, arrangement and on some properties and activities of the bacteria are also provided. The discussions cover methods of microscopical demonstration, diagnostic bacteriology, bacterial anatomy, bacteriophages, bacterial genetics, and two groups of bacteria: the Myxobacteria and the Streptomycetes. The sequence of the pictures and descriptions as well as the informative text follow a scientific trend, yet this book must by no means be regarded as a textbook. Its main object will be abundantly fulfilled if it gives a certain amount of pleasure to the reader. Completeness has not been attempted and only a small fraction of the wealth of information found in textbooks and in the modern bacteriological literature has here been offered to the reader.