BACK IN PRINT WITH A REVISED PREFACE

Microcosmos brings together the remarkable discoveries of microbiology of the past two decades and the pioneering research of Dr. Margulis to create a vivid new picture of the world that is crucial to our understanding of the future of the planet. Addressed to general readers, the book provides a beautifully written view of evolution as a process based on interdependency and thei nterconnectedness of all life on the planet.

Foreword by Lewis Thomas (1986)
Preface (1997)
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Microcosm
1. Out of the Cosmos
2. The Animation of Matter
3. The Language of Nature
4. Entering the Microcosm
5. Sex and Worldwide Genetic Exchange
6. The Oxygen Holocaust
7. New Cells
8. Living Together
9. The Symbiotic Brain
10. The Riddle of Sex
11. Late Bloomers: Animals and Plants
12. Egocentric Man
13. The Future Supercosm
Notes
Index

Lynn Margulis is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dorion Sagan is the author of Biospheres and coauthor, with Lynn Margulis, of What Is Life? (1996).

"A luminous prose style. . . . Clear, evocative and, at its best, dense with realities rather than concepts or opinions, [Microcosmos] grips the serious reader in a way that transcends both science and science journalism."—Melvin Konner, New York Times Book Review

"Microcosmos is a book for all to read. Although the ideas expressed with such clarity and enthusiasm in this enthralling volume are soundly based on current scientific research they are couched in a language that anyone with a smattering of biology can easily grasp. . . . Microcosmos is a book packed with information and fascinating detail, but all of it to the purpose of demonstrating how life forms are interwoven with each other."—Peter Bunyard, The Ecologist

"A stunning, complex chronicle. . . proposing that only an understanding of the microcosm from which life sprang can make possible our ultimate leap beyond Earth into a human-devised supercosm."—Publishers Weekly