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Tales From The Underground

A Natural History Of Subterranean Life

Tales From The Underground Open the full-size image

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By David Wolfe

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$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

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Format:

  1. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 28, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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There are over one billion organisms in a pinch of soil, yet we know much more about deep space than about the universe below. In Tales from the Underground, Cornell ecologist David Wolfe takes us on a tour through current scientific knowledge of the subterranean world. We follow the progress of discovery from Charles Darwin’s experiments with earthworms, to Lewis and Clark’s first encounter with prairie dogs, to the use of new genetic tools that are revealing an astonishingly rich ecosystem beneath our feet. Wolfe plunges us deep into the earth’s rocky crust, where life may have begun-a world devoid of oxygen and light but safe from asteroid bombardment. Primitive microbes found there are turning our notion of the evolutionary tree of life on its head: amazingly, they represent perhaps a full third of earth’s genetic diversity. As Wolfe explains, creatures of the soil can work for us, by providing important pharmaceuticals and recycling the essential elements of life, or against us, by spreading disease and contributing to global climate change. The future of our species may well depend on how we manage our living soil resources. Tales from the Underground will forever alter our appreciation of the natural world around-and beneath-us.

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On Sale
Apr 28, 2009
Page Count
256 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786730933

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David Wolfe

About the Author

David W. Wolfe is Associate Professor of Plant Ecology in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, and a member of Cornell’s Biogeochemistry Program. Much of his research is focused on soil conservation, and the impact of climate change on plants and soils. He has published many journal articles and academic papers. Tales from the Underground is his first book.

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