Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
Written by Ruth Kassinger
Narrated by Xe Sands
4/5
()
About this audiobook
There are as many algae on Earth as stars in the universe, and they have been essential to life on our planet for eons. Algae created the Earth we know today, with its oxygen-rich atmosphere, abundant oceans, and coral reefs. Crude oil is made of dead algae, and algae are the ancestors of all plants. Today, seaweed production is a multi-billion dollar industry, with algae hard at work to make your sushi, chocolate milk, beer, paint, toothpaste, shampoo, and so much more.
In Slime we’ll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market.
With a multitude of lively, surprising science and history, Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.
Ruth Kassinger
RUTH KASSINGER is the author of Paradise Under Glass and A Garden of Marvels, as well as a number of award-winning science and history books for young adults. She has written for the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune,Health magazine,National Geographic Explorer, and other publications. She is a frequent speaker at conservatories, arboretums, and garden clubs, and has been featured on radio shows and Voice of America.
Related to Slime
Related audiobooks
The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean, and the Looming Threat That Imperils It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nature Underfoot: Living with Beetles, Crabgrass, Fruit Flies, and Other Tiny Life Around Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marsh Builders: The Fight for Clean Water, Wetlands, and Wildlife Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fathoms: The World in the Whale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Eden: How Plants Transformed a Barren Planet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of the Earthworm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chasing Lakes: Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kraken Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden World: How Insects Sustain Life on Earth Today and Will Shape Our Lives Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEndless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Incredible Journey of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sightlines: A Conversation with the Natural World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biology For You
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change (Your Neurotoolkit for Everyday Life) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How the Mind Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Uncertain Sea: Fear is everywhere. Embrace it. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second Nature: A Gardener's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Adventures in Memory: The Science and Secrets of Remembering and Forgetting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Slime
20 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely loved this book. It changed my perspective about algae. They are so important and deadly at the same time! Also, the narrator is really good.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Terrific insight into this promising area for a sustainable strategy for our world.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“Algae are powerful enough on their own to change life on the planet. Billions of years ago they oxygenated the oceans and the air, then sent the planet into a deep freeze. They killed or banished the oceans’ anaerobic organism and covered the land in plants,” says Ruth Kassinger in Slime. Though this quote comes near the end of the book, the beginning really does tell the story eloquently. Not only are algae our past, they are also our future.Before there were plants, before there was even oxygen, there were algae. With no predators, or much of anything really, algae pumped out oxygen from their spots in the water. It was, and is, simple photosynthesis, using the sun to their advantage. Eventually, they developed into land-based plants that continued the service ashore, while some kinds of algae continually sank to the ocean floor, sequestering carbon dioxide and becoming massive oil deposits. In other words, we owe pretty much everything to algae, the oldest lifeforms still around.This story of algae’s role in life on Earth is fascinating, and it gives way to the astounding variety of algae, and how people all over the world have taken their local versions into their lives, and their stomachs. Algae filter the water they live in, keeping a shopping list of vitamins and minerals within them, and their larger versions – seaweeds. Algae cool the planet. They block the sun, cool the water, provide the seeds for clouds, and sequester CO2. They are powerful enough to cause ice ages. They also color coral and provide shelter for a huge variety of underwater life. We are however, managing to overcome those services, as Kassinger points out numerous times, in different contexts.There are now 400 dead zones in the oceans of the world, with more and longer lasting algal blooms forecast. A dead zone contains no oxygen, so nothing can live there. No plankton, no bottom feeders, no fish. The Baltic’s dead zone is the size of Montana, Kassinger says. Global warming is the cause, and we don’t know how bad things will get because of it. But we’re working on finding out. Algal blooms are occurring in freshwater lakes more and more, as everything warms to accommodate algae. Fertilizer, topsoil and pesticides complete the invitation to smelly red or green carpets of algae all summer long.Kassinger describes and uses lovely, clear illustrations by Shanthi Chandrasekar to demonstrate the varieties of algae and seaweed. Seaweed in particular is a cornucopia of nutrition we are only just getting into in the West. From iodine to iron to vitamin Bs, seaweed is a largely untapped blessing. It requires no arable land, no fertilizers and is easy to harvest.After this fast start, the bulk of the book is a little less satisfying, as Kassinger hits the road, visiting companies all over the world that are trying to make something more out of algae and seaweed. She describes endless factories and labs where someone is trying to leverage them. They are making biofuel, animal foods, biostimulants (super fertilizers), skin creams, or dreaming up geo-engineering projects to make algae sop up more of the CO2 we keep pumping out, while producing more oxygen. It’s an endless tour of failed startups from insufficinet capital, the price of oil falling (thanks to fracking) and less than efficacious management. There are also seaweed harvesters, who rake in, process and sell the raw or treated product for simple consumption. Some are purists, some are tinkerers. A lot of scientists seem to be playing with algae and seaweed DNA, trying to make them do more, or do things they were never intended to do. But the story of the algae and evolution easily tops them all.Kassinger writes with a light touch, despite the tech terms and biological classifications. She constantly exhibits her passion for her subject, to the point of getting diver certification. It’s a fun read as well as an education. Clearly, it is vastly more important to life on Earth than most know. And as we run out of land, algae will become an even more important part of daily life.I can’t think of another science book I’ve reviewed that contained recipes at the back.David Wineberg