So Very Small

How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs--and May Still Lose the War against Infectious Disease

De: Thomas Levenson

Narrado por: Mike Cooper

The centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.

“Essential reading . . . Thomas Levenson brings to brilliant life the social history of medical detective work and illuminates the fascinating world of pathogenic microbes.”—Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poison Squad

Scientists and enthusiastic amateurs first confirmed the existence of living things invisible to the human eye in the late seventeenth century. So why did it take two centuries to connect microbes to disease? As late as the Civil War in the 1860s, most soldiers who perished died not on the battlefield but of infected wounds, typhoid, and other diseases. Twenty years later, the outcome might have been different, following one of the most radical intellectual transformations in history: germ theory, the recognition that the tiniest forms of life have been humankind’s greatest killers. It was a discovery centuries in the making, and it transformed modern life and public health.

As Thomas Levenson reveals in this globe-spanning history, it has everything to do with how we see ourselves. For centuries, people in the West, believing themselves to hold God-given dominion over nature, thought too much of humanity and too little of microbes to believe they could take us down. When nineteenth-century scientists finally made the connection, life-saving methods to control infections and contain outbreaks soon followed. The next big break came with the birth of the antibiotic era in the 1930s. And yet, less than a century later, the promise of the antibiotic revolution is already receding due to years of overuse. Is our self-confidence getting the better of us again?

So Very Small follows the thread of human ingenuity and hubris across centuries—along the way peering into microscopes, spelunking down sewers, visiting army hospitals, traipsing across sheep fields, and more—to show how we came to understand the microbial environment and how little we understand ourselves. Levenson traces how and why ideas are pursued, accepted, or ignored—and hence how human habits of mind can, so often, make it terribly hard to ask the right questions.

©2025 Thomas Levenson (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“So Very Small is the wonderfully intimate and intertwined story of how humans discovered microbes and learned to tame them. Levenson is a master storyteller, and his latest book reads like an epic novel, spanning centuries, continents and microbial calamities. It offers a compelling story of how microbes have influenced society, seamlessly intertwined with fascinating historical events, while vividly bringing the characters and scientific discoveries to life.”—Alanna Collen, author of 10% Human

“In So Very Small, Thomas Levenson brings to brilliant life the social history of medical detective work, notably the long quest to understand and to combat infectious disease. In doing so he illuminates the fascinating world of pathogenic microbes, the often unexpected ways we’ve achieved protection, and the often self-destructive ways we’ve undermined—and continue to undermine—our own public health successes. In a world where the next pandemic waits ahead, this is essential reading.”—Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poison Squad

“A penetrating chronicle of humanity’s fight against microorganisms . . . buoyed by the author’s lucid prose, this is a first-rate work of popular science.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review