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

“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease that reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.

“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining . . . journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field.”—Science

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

“In So Very Small Levenson provides not only the backstory to resistance to variolation but an elegant, wide-ranging history of the discovery of microorganisms and their relation to disease.”—New York Review of Books

“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining, if frustrating, journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field . . . Levenson concludes that ‘we aren’t smarter than the microcosmos,’ and despite centuries of advances, it is clear that he is correct.”—Science

“[So Very Small] 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

A gripping account of a triumph of humanity, and our limitations

A fascinating account of how we had the tools to understand infectious long before we began to use them to save lives. Also an account of how our presumption that we are separate from, and above, nature impeded (and still impedes) our ability to take care of ourselves.

Very written and very well performed.

Loved the historical perspective of so very

An important book to be read to understand the current state of misinformed anti-VAXERS. It would be good to have an executive summary that can be shared.