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Secret Life of the Brewer's Yeast: A Microbiology Tale
"Secret Life of the Brewer's Yeast" is told by Benjamin Ketchum, a microbiologist who lives in Montana and has just one year left to gain his tenure.
Ben also recently lost his big anthrax grant so now he's forced to turn to the brewer's yeast, a microbe he knows virtually nothing about, just to keep his lab up & running.
On a whim, the bacteriologist buys a ticket to Egypt - birthplace of perhaps the world's oldest civilization - where he learns all he can about the yeast's role in building the pyramids, as well as the history of brewing, baking, and winemaking.
Next, Ben travels to a more recent example of a beer culture - Munich, Germany - where he learns the yeast's role in helping bring about Western civilization including the birth of lager beers & the field of biochemistry.
Towards the end of the story, Ben attends a symposium in Seattle on the brewer's yeast, where he uncovers all the ways the yeast has been helping scientists accomplish such diverse tasks as manufacturing valuable human proteins like insulin, biofuels such as ethanol, finding clues about human aging, detecting poisonous gases in subway systems, and even gaining insight into the origins of cancer.
This book is Part One of a longer novel called "Cystic Fibrosis & the Brewer's Yeast" by the same author.
Ben also recently lost his big anthrax grant so now he's forced to turn to the brewer's yeast, a microbe he knows virtually nothing about, just to keep his lab up & running.
On a whim, the bacteriologist buys a ticket to Egypt - birthplace of perhaps the world's oldest civilization - where he learns all he can about the yeast's role in building the pyramids, as well as the history of brewing, baking, and winemaking.
Next, Ben travels to a more recent example of a beer culture - Munich, Germany - where he learns the yeast's role in helping bring about Western civilization including the birth of lager beers & the field of biochemistry.
Towards the end of the story, Ben attends a symposium in Seattle on the brewer's yeast, where he uncovers all the ways the yeast has been helping scientists accomplish such diverse tasks as manufacturing valuable human proteins like insulin, biofuels such as ethanol, finding clues about human aging, detecting poisonous gases in subway systems, and even gaining insight into the origins of cancer.
This book is Part One of a longer novel called "Cystic Fibrosis & the Brewer's Yeast" by the same author.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 13, 2011
11 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
David Wooster
3 booksI earned my Ph.D. while working on cystic fibrosis in 2002. I then worked at Children's Hospital Los Angeles on childhood meningitis. When my postdoctoral fellowship ended in 2004, I began teaching and writing science books.
These books are fictional, but based on real experiences I had in graduate school in Montana and later research in California.
I hope you enjoy them and they give you some insight into what it's like to be a medical researcher in a modern microbiology lab.
These books are fictional, but based on real experiences I had in graduate school in Montana and later research in California.
I hope you enjoy them and they give you some insight into what it's like to be a medical researcher in a modern microbiology lab.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 11, 2018
An enjoyable read about the history of yeast and more generally science. I found his writing style easy going and informative. While I know a bit about yeast this book has given me a new perspective on it as well as a history of bacteria, the Egyptians and other little tit bits of information that I found rather edifying.
January 4, 2019
Free Kindle ebook. History and science. Interesting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews