xx fiffPreface
What’s New in the
Second Edition?
- New chapter stories on current, fun, and unexpected topics like the Zika
virus outbreak, the human microbiome, and the discovery of a CRISPR
gene editing technology. New stories include:
Chapter 5: How Cells Work—Rock Eaters
Unusual electricity-“eating” microbes could someday provide a new way to store and produce
energy as “bacterial batteries.”
Chapter 9: What Genes Are—Pigs to the Rescue
CRISPR is perhaps one of the most exciting discoveries of the last century. Chapter 9 describes
one application of the CRISPR genome editing technology: creating organs for transplant...
in pigs.
Chapter 15: Bacteria and Archaea—Navel Gazing
A team at North Carolina State University leads a citizen science project to sequence the human
belly button microbiome and gets some surprising results.
Chapter 16: Plants, Fungi, and Protists—The Dirt on Black-Market Plants
Poaching is illegal, and trafficking of tropical plants such as orchids threatens their survival. A
group of scientists is tracking illegal plants from the United States to their source.
Chapter 19: Growth of Populations—Zika-Busting Mosquitoes
The spread of Zika throughout the Americas quickly became a health crisis. Genetically
modifying mosquitoes is one of the ways that scientists are using to try to control Zika’s spread.