The Third Domain: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology

by Tim Friend

Friend offers the untold story of how the discovery of a new form of life--one ignored for the past 30 years by mainstream scientists--is revolutionizing science, industry, and even the search for the existence of life beyond Earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I teach microbiology to undergraduates so I read this with professional interest. My students are primarily nursing students so I rarely get to talk about microbial ecology and the unusual microbes called Archaea which are the topics of this book. This book was extremely frustrating to read, and it took me 2 - 3 attempts at getting started before I was able to finally get into it and get past the first chapter, let alone finish it. Much of this I attribute to the author's writing style. The text was dense, and chapters of 30+ pages or more had not a single section break where you could stop reading if you needed to. It was hard to read more than a few pages at a time so you had to just stop somewhere in the middle of a thought when you needed to put the book down. The author would start out talking about one thing, usually a personal experience he was having microbe hunting with various scientists, then the next thing you know he was going on for 10 - 20 pages about background information before finally getting back around to his field adventures. This was especially annoying at the beginning of the book before you could really see where he was going with it all. I did find some minor but concerning misstatements of fundamental science concepts which made me wary about the science he reported later which was not so fundamental. The book could have benefited from a good editor to tame the crazy writing style. All this said, once I got past the first couple of chapters, the book became quite interesting to me and I could look past the writing flaws. But I am a total microbiology nerd; I do not think this book would have broad appeal outside the scientific community, but I do hope some science teachers read it or at least skim it. I will say the author (a journalist who was very knowledgeable about the way science works)was truly enthusiastic about the subject matter but unfortunately the writing was too dense to be inviting to a lay audience. Also this book was published in 2007 & now it is 2015 so I am not sure how far the science has advanced; 8 years is a long time in science.

[Correen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to give the book only four stars because I did not like the organization of the chapters. I decided, however, that the content was so good that nothing should detract from it. I learned more than I could have possibly anticipated and my thinking has been deeply influenced by Friend's reporting.

This is a book about archaea, probably the most numerous of the three domains of life on earth (eukaria, bacteria, and arachea) but unknown by most persons. Archaea have come in the news recently because some, known as extremeophiles,live in seemingly hostile conditions -- very high or low temperatures, high in the atmosphere, and in toxic chemicals or radioactive conditions. The most important part of the book is the hope the knowledge of these microbes may provide for a better future with possible solutions for global warming plus numerous manufacturing uses, energy production, and numerous other problems.

[Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling read which might have benefited from better editing. This was my introduction to Archaea, a misunderstood and until quite recently, unknown life form. The book captured my attention immediately and I initially enjoyed Friend's mingling of technical basics with his personal motivation and human interest stories of folks involved with bringing archaea to the world's attention.

Unfortunately, the read gets a bit tedious and requires a rigorous effort to maintain focus: the chapters are long with no easy breaks where you feel able to pause...and eventually the subject matter becomes dense and seems to jump about randomly with little sense of theme or organization. That is a shame, because I liked the core elements of Friend's writing style and it is fascinating (and vital!) topic. The raw material was there, but like the little archaea critters, some serious recombining of genetic material may have built a better beast.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this had a lot of great info on microbial life, it didn't seem to have much about actual archaea.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

archaea are really, really awesome.