Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
About this ebook
Say "algae" and most people think of pond scum. What they don't know is that without algae, none of us would exist. Algae created the Earth we know today, with its oxygen-rich atmosphere, abundant oceans, and coral reefs. Crude oil is made of dead algae, and algae are the ancestors of all plants. Today, seaweed production is a multibillion-dollar industry, with algae hard at work to make your sushi, chocolate milk, beer, paint, toothpaste, shampoo, and so much more.
In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. With a mix of surprising science and history, Ruth Kassinger takes readers on an around-the-world and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.
A New York Times New and Noteworthy Title
"Great reading." —Ira Flatow, NPR's "Science Friday" Best Book of Summer
"Kassinger . . .packs an impressive amount of biochemistry into digestible terms." — New York Review of Books
"Kassinger has us rooting for pond scum—it might just save us yet." — Science News
"Compelling." — Nature
"Fascinating and relevant." — BookPage, starred review
