Author Description

The Fourth Edition has two new themes-the human gut microbiome and Antarctic microbiology-that highlight exciting discoveries in two key areas of the discipline (medical and ecological microbiology). The two themes are called out throughout each chapter with marginal icons so they're easy to find, talk about, and teach. New chapter openers feature brief interviews with mircobiologists about their recently published work that provide up-to-date introductions to the subject of each chapter. Special topic boxes, many updated for the Fourth Edition, focus on the experimental details of a recent discovery to show how science is done in, and sometimes outside of, the lab.