Your body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It’s an entire world, a colony full of life.

In other words, you contain multitudes.

These microscopic companions sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us with their genes. They also hold the key to understanding all life on earth.

In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems.

We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution, and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage.

In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see yourself.

埃德·揚是《大西洋月刊》的科學記者，目前在美國華盛頓特區工作。他的作品還常見於《美國國傢地理》《紐約客》《連綫》《自然》《新科學傢》和《科學美國人》等眾多科學媒體。他因齣色的生物醫學報道和生命科學傳播工作，於2016年分彆榮獲邁剋爾·E. 德貝基新聞奬（Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award）和拜倫·H. 瓦剋斯曼奬（Byron H. Waksman Award），他曾經的博客“並不復雜的科學”（Not Exactly Rocket Science）曾於2010年榮獲美國國傢研究院凱剋科學傳播奬（National Academies Keck Science Communication Award）。埃德曾經在TED發錶關於控製意識的寄生蟲的演講，目前已獲得150多萬的觀看量。

譯者鄭李，筆名李子，科學鬆鼠會成員，科普作者、譯者。畢業於北京大學、倫敦政治經濟學院，目前在佐治亞理工大學從事科學、技術與社會學研究。