The Modern Scholar

Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria

By: Professor Betsey Dexter Dyer

Narrated by: Professor Betsey Dexter Dyer

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Bacteria are the most overlooked organisms on your nature walk. You see birds, trees, and wildflowers. You may even examine fungi, rock formations, mosses, lichens, nests, tracks, and insects. However, it is likely that you are not seeing bacteria even though you may know they are there in countless numbers, far outnumbering the other organisms, and that their influence on the environment is vast and profound.Professor Betsey Dexter Dyer of Wheaton College examines the role of bacteria as major players in Earth's biodiversity. In the course of these fascinating lectures, Professor Dyer delves into the history of microbiology, the four billion year history of bacteria and archaea as the dominant organisms on Earth, and the place of pathogens in the greater context of the bacterial world. This course serves as both a field guide for curious naturalists and a friendly introduction to the world of bacteria and archaea.

Please note that the website www.modernscholar.com is no longer accessible.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2008 Betsey Dexter Dyer (P)2008 Recorded Books

Uninformative and Uninteresting

This lecture is very remedial. Anyone who has taken a high school biology class will learn very little from it. The author is redundant, and the pace of the lecture is teasingly slow. However, if you want to learn how to identify bacteria by their field marks, it may be worth a listen. Some of the digressions in the lecture are comically out of place, such as the art history of Johannes Vermeer.

Welcome to the real world

This is a systematic and methodological overview of the most numerous and important life forms. Most people will have their worldview of biology turned upside down. Naturalists and scientists will be reminded the the bacteria are running the show. It's a new look at nature and a framework about the hidden world that is everywhere. I ordered the author's field guide and plan to use it future nature walks.

Bacteria-watching????

I love science books and really enjoy biology books. But I am having a very hard time writing this review. Maybe I am just not the intended audience for this book. I enjoy learning about how things work. Why they work a certain way. This book is not about those things as much as it can help it. Its about taxonomy and enumeration. All of what I would consider true science content is at high school level. Actually the whole book felt like a high school course. A ton or redundancy, a ton of pre-qualification, a ton of specifically excluding content (as if I should be happy that it won't be on my final). Really cool concepts like horizontal transfer, streamlined genomes and jumping genes are mentioned but barely explored.

Before buying this book - I would really read the description. Dyer has written the 'Field Guide' to bacteria, and these lectures are the course to go with it. Imagine bird watching with a book describing what birds are called, where they live and what their basic behaviors are. Some content on the best places and methods to spot birds. This is the equivalent for bacteria.

If you are not into taxonomy and ' - watching' I would not get this volume.

Even THINKING about it? Go ahead and get it!

I picked this up on one of Audible's super sales (I think I got it for $5) and I absolutely loved it. Yes, I'm a science geek, and your average person is not going to appreciate this course but, if you're at all curious about microbes and the history of science, I can assure you this is an excellent course. The professor obviously loves her subject and communicates well (this is a series of lectures, not really an "audiobook" per se). It is aimed at the curious, not the wanna-be microbiologist, so it's not TOO technical and I assure you that you will be impressed with all that bacteria do to make life possible for us.

A passion for bacteria

The author is passionate about her subject and the information is compelling. The presentation style is like a lecture so you should not expect zippy over enthusiastic selling of ideas. There are several noteworthy facts about bacteria: for example, haemoglobin was developed in bacteria to sequester oxygen because it interefered with early life processes. Only later in the evolutionary descent was that protein used to carry oxygen where it is needed. This is a useful note if you are arguing against "intelligent" design and "intrinsic complexity"

Fascinating

Would you listen to The Modern Scholar again? Why?

Yes, I have several more Modern Scholar titles in my wish list, and have a few already in my library.

What did you like best about this story?

Now I know why Swiss cheese smells like sweaty feet.

Which character – as performed by the narrator – was your favorite?

N/A

Any additional comments?

Now I want to set up a column full of swamp mud and grow my own bacteria. The sections on bacterial metabolism were particularly interesting.

Entertaining Introduction to Microcosmia

A well-thought-out series of lectures focusing on some detailed aspects of a diverse topic. It is 50 % entertainment and 50% education, not a bad balance for the general public.

Utterly fascinating and life changing lectures!

Professor Dyer's lectures on bacteria are incredibly gripping, well put together, and full of fascinating information. It is obvious to me, a fellow academic (though in History, not in any hard science), that she is presenting the very basic, watered-down version here, but it's quite enough for a non-specialist. There were only a few places where I hungered for more information and really wished that she hadn't cut out some of the more challenging details. Overall, this is a wonderful series of lectures that will make you think about and look at bacteria--and even yourself--in a whole new way. I also really like her voice. I purchased the other Modern Scholar lecture series she did, "The Basics of Genetics," and am looking forward to listening to it.

perfect

exactly what I was looking for. complete information. I just needed an overview about bacteria, but I got way more than that.

Passionate and Fascinating

My favorite kind of lecture is one given passionately and this lecture succeeds in that from beginning to end. It does a wonderful job of teaching you audibly and you come out of this feeling like a microbiologist and dare I say a bacteria lover! I would watch some videos online after certain lectures to get more detail in things or to see illustrations of morphology etc. and when they spoke in the videos with all these scientific terms I was like,” oh jeez I know everything they are talking about”. It is really like learning a new language.

I plan on listening to this lecture again because it is just packed with great content that my tiny brain couldn’t absorb. Thank you professor !