Never Home Alone

October 8, 2019 3:50 PM - by Rob Dunn

Even when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters. You are not alone. Yet, as we obsess over sterilizing our homes and separating our spaces from nature, we are unwittingly cultivating an entirely new playground for evolution. These changes are reshaping the organisms that live with us--prompting some to become more dangerous, while undermining those species that benefit our bodies or help us keep more threatening organisms at bay. No one who reads this engrossing, revelatory book will look at their homes in the same way again.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis (2 comments total)

This is a really fascinating look at the world at its most microscopic and how it too is teeming with life, in areas we try to think of as sterile. Definitely creepy in some places, but the very fact that some parts of this book grossed me out is my problem because as Dunn explains, sterilizing ourselves and our houses to oblivion hurts us far more than it helps us. A really good read about a world most of us try not to think about.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 3:53 PM on October 8, 2019

Neat! I really appreciate your recommendations and write-ups. :-)
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 7:23 PM on October 8, 2019 [2 favorites]