Another book

I'm reading a different book, "The Future of Life", by Edward O. Wilson. It is very interesting. His first chapter deals with the diversity of life forms, and the variety of places they are found. I've heard of things that live near undersea volcanic vents, but apparently there are many more examples of "extremophile" bacteria, microbes and such.

Another fun bit of info he provides is that there are more cells in and on our bodies that DON'T belong to us than DO. The number of bacteria in our gastrointestinal tract, as well as on our skin, etc., outnumbers our body cells. However, there is more mass in our body cells......thank goodness! Wouldn't we look cute if you could see all these creepy-crawlies on us.... It doesn't bear thinking about.

A third interesting piece of information is that most of the flora and fauna in Hawaii are foreign, and most of the native species are extinct. One picturesque species which was imported as a form of control is the rosy wolf snail. That brings up quite an image.

I want to go read some more.