The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money
The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money
2 Rating(s)
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

The Rise of Yeast
How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization

Author: Nicholas P. Money

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 6 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/28/2018


Synopsis

The great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once wrote, "I know of no familiar substance forming part of our every-day knowledge and experience, the examination of which, with a little care, tends to open up such very considerable issues as does yeast." Huxley was right. Beneath the very foundations of human civilization lies yeast—also known as the sugar fungus. Yeast is responsible for fermenting our alcohol and providing us with bread—the very staples of life. Moreover, it has proven instrumental in helping cell biologists and geneticists understand how living things work, manufacturing life-saving drugs, and producing biofuels that could help save the planet from global warming.

In The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money argues that we cannot ascribe too much importance to yeast, and that its discovery and controlled use profoundly altered human history. Humans knew what yeast did long before they knew what it was. It was not until Louis Pasteur's experiments in the 1860s that scientists even acknowledged its classification as a fungus. A compelling blend of science, history, and sociology, The Rise of Yeast explores the rich, strange, and utterly symbiotic relationship between people and yeast, a stunning account that takes us back to the roots of human history.

About Nicholas P. Money

Nicholas P. Money is professor of biology at Miami University in Ohio and the author of many books, including The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization, Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History, and Microbiology: A Very Short Introduction.


Reviews

My first exposure to the cellular mechanisms churning within yeast was in an epigenetics course. Prior to that, I had no idea how interesting their life cycles and mating were or how useful they are in biological research. Money has written a wonderfully comprehensive and interesting history of huma......more

Goodreads review by R

"...Unlike treeshrews, however, fruit flies display all the signs of drunkenness after binging. When they are exposed to high concentrations of alcohol in the form of vapour they become excited, move around more swiftly than usual and bump into obstacles, fall over, and, finally, go to sleep. ...The......more

Goodreads review by Michael

“The Rise of Yeast” is a great book about the large and various influences this single fungus has left on humanity. Money, in a engaging and easily accessible way, details the history of Yeast—how it shaped ancient agriculturalists—and continues on to its modern applications. This is a wonderful boo......more