Life's Engines

How Microbes Made Earth Habitable

By: Paul G. Falkowski

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

For almost four billion years, microbes had the primordial oceans all to themselves. The stewards of Earth, these organisms transformed the chemistry of our planet to make it habitable for plants, animals, and us. Life's Engines takes listeners deep into the microscopic world to explore how these marvelous creatures made life on Earth possible - and how human life today would cease to exist without them.

Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built - and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.

A vibrantly entertaining audiobook about the microbes that support our very existence, Life's Engines will inspire wonder about these elegantly complex nanomachines that have driven life since its origin. It also issues a timely warning about the dangers of tinkering with that machinery to make it more "efficient" at meeting the ever-growing demands of humans in the coming century.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Full of motherhood statements

I had high hopes for this book but was disappointed. About 80% of the information would be known to anyone with a technical background or someone who listens to scientific podcasts. The 20% extension of knowledge on microbes I was seeking was buried in a history lesson making it harder to follow. I don’t know why science is always talked about

If you like the history of how

if ur hot for microbes...

Actually, if you’re already hot for them, this book might be a bit too basic. The narrator was not my cup of tea. Do yourself a favor and listen to the sample prior to purchasing the audiobook. Last few chapters were worth the listen.

this is a wonderfully informative composition

This book delivers great knowledge for a fine story. This is far cheaper than a college-course. It is still better.

loved it

loved it. very informative. can surely recommend this one.
no need for a microbiological background although it might help

Great book to appreciate microbes

This was a great listen. The narration was on point, but more importantly, you'll gain a much deeper appreciation for the microbial world that you inhabit. The build up to the profound question of, "are we alone," was well done and offered seemingly viable theories and ideas.

An enjoyable educational experience!

What did you love best about Life's Engines?

Falkowski turned the detail-oriented subject into an understandable historical timeline that read like a journey.

Have you listened to any of Nick Sullivan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My first book with Nick Sullivan performance, but look forward to listening to this reader again.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Enjoyed every word.

An approachable journey through time

This book was a really enjoyable experience. I liked how Paul made the complicated subject more approachable by discarding some of the jargon that keeps people away and replacing it with either new more colonial terms or defining his own down to earth jargon for the sake of the book. I have a bit of background in this subject and I have to say that I not only learned new things, but also leaned a new way to describe the concepts that I knew coming in.

Good Tour Through All the Related Fields

What I like about the subject of the origins of life is that it takes you through many various fields of science, from cosmology to geology to paleontology to physics to chemistry to biology and even into their various sub-fields, and this book did not disappoint.

It is a long book, and the author spends a lot of time in each field, where you may forget it is an Origins of Life book while you are being immersed in geology or paleontology or chemistry or biology. On a small point, the author gives a lot of the standard anecdotes (experiments and encounters) (I found that one must read a foreign author for experiments and anecdotes that stray from the usual British/American stories). If you’re new to reading in this field, then the anecdotes will all be new, and still delightful. If you’ve heard them all before, you’ll be looking for a fresh presentation (not parroted). You get a mix here, but even after listening to many others, this was a good experience – I picked up a few new things, which is all I really hope for any more. If your new to the field, you’ll pick up a lot, so it is a good introductory book - it will carry you away.

Read the title

Engaging. Well written. Made me wish I could study biology deeper than I have time for.

If your a human...this should be mandatory.

Enjoyed this so much I'm going in for a second helping. 10/10 brilliant on all levels.