David Montgomery & Anne Bikle Author Event

Set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. Good health—for people and plants—depends on Earth’s smallest creatures. From garden to gut, The Hidden Half of Nature tells an inspiring story about the least-loved part of nature—microbes.

The authors learn first-hand the power of the smallest creatures on earth when they transform their barren urban lot in Seattle into a flourishing garden. Then a surprise cancer diagnosis hits Biklé, launching them on a search for answers into the burgeoning new realm of the human microbiome.

Montgomery and Biklé uncover stunning similarities in the role microbes play in the botanical and human worlds. Not only can they help farmers restore degraded fields, but doctors can enlist microbes as allies to prevent and treat modern chronic diseases.

The secret? Safeguarding and cultivating the beneficial microbes beneath our feet and in our bodies. Working with them could transform agriculture and medicine—through merging the mind of an ecologist with the care of a gardener and the skill of a doctor.