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For fans of Entangled Life: The Illustrated Edition and from a team of award-winning scientists including the “Eye of Science” photographers who specialize in capturing unseen, highly magnified worlds—a dazzling visual exploration of the awe-inspiring (and often shiver-inducing!) microorganisms that sustain the soil upon which all higher life depends
Soil sustains life and is among Earth’s most essential natural resources. Nearly 60 percent of all species depend on soil for their survival, and almost all mammals depend on plants grown in soil. To many of us, it may seem like just “dirt,” but under the gaze of the authors of The Soil Zoo, it’s a dazzling microcosmos teeming with never-before-seen creatures that need to be seen to be believed.
And seen they are, thanks to the high-tech electron microscopes and cameras deployed by world-leading “Eye of Science” photography team Nicole Ottawa and Oliver Meckes. Here are springtails chewing on deadwood, ciliates feeding on bacteria, amoebas hunting nematodes, voracious mites, and fungi and lichens forming vast networks—all in extraordinarily detailed extreme close-ups that invite closest-possible scrutiny.
Scientists Veronika Straass and Claus-Peter Lieckfeld’s accompanying text help us further appreciate this abundant and astonishingly vibrant world, including the fact that up to ten billion organisms can inhabit a handful of soil, with life cycles ranging from a few hours to entire centuries.
Everyone from inquisitive gardeners to students of soil science, cutting-edge photography fans to the biology-curious, will be amazed by The Soil Zoo’s panoply of weird and wonderful higher-life-supporting cast of characters. And readers will come away compelled to play our part as stewards of the soil, to ensure the astonishing diversity of these organisms continues to survive—and thrive.
“Science Book of the Year by Bild der Wissenschaft, 1st place in the aesthetics category
"With [The Soil Zoo], a competent team of four has created a compelling work of art that offers something new on every page. The book dispenses with a representative cover and relies entirely on the power of large-format images. The concise yet highly informative texts serve the photographs well. They provide compact and sometimes curious knowledge. An all-around successful illustrated book that invites you to leaf through it again and again. Far too good to be left to gather dust on the bookshelf.”—Michael Lange, jury member for Bild der Wissenschaft
“Magnificent. . . .The magazine Bild der Wissenschaft was right to name this volume . . . the most beautiful science book of the year.”—Der Spiegel
“Dirt has never been so attractive! . . . The authors manage to describe the micro world beneath us in such an exciting way that you suddenly feel like making compost and embracing humus. . . . Who is this book for? It is a great gift for all nature lovers, teachers, and those involved in environmental education. Or simply for people who can’t stop being fascinated by the diversity of our living creatures.”—Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management
“Both a lesson in humility and a fascinating glimpse of nature.”—Denis Brudna, Photonews
“The book is an absolute must-read and clearly a suitable gift for many people. It is an exciting experience for laypeople, and even soil ecologists will enjoy the extraordinary photographs and learn a thing or two from the texts.”—Björn Lohmann, spektrum.de
“The book succeeds in making the invisible visible and providing inspiring insights into a world unknown to us. This makes it an important contribution to raising awareness of soil. . . . already a classic and a cornerstone of educational work! Definitely worth a look!”—Nature in North Rhine-Westphalia
“They do the dirty work for us: bacteria, fungi, worms, and other creatures from the earth. Yet we know very little about them. Two authors have explored how rich and useful life in the soil is.”—FAZonline
“The book is rigorously structured and much more than just an illustrated book. . . . Leafing through the book is akin to visiting a zoo . . . technically first-class images in sometimes dizzying enlargements and never-before-seen details–accompanied by deeply insightful texts.”—Photography
“An ingenious illustrated book that will enchant even those who are skeptical of dirt and creepy-crawlies. With a tardigrade as cover girl, sporting a giraffe pattern to boot, you can't go wrong.”—Julia Sica, Der Standard
“We should all know better by now–and above all, do better. One approach to this is to engage with books such as [The Soil Zoo].”—Sylvia Treudl, Buchkultur
