Joela Jacobs and Agnes Malinowska (eds), 'Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-Matter'

This collection of essays deals with microscopic living things in a way that stresses the metaphors that swirl around them.The idea was first explored as a panel at a literature conference and then crafted over several years as the authors honed their work to create a cohesive whole.This is what sets this volume apart from many collections and makes it particularly appealing.The eight chapters deal with small life in categories, some of which are unlikely to be found today in a purely scientific work.The first is called ' Animalcules', a word coined by Antoine van Leeuwenhoek in the late seventeenth century to describe the tiny but complex structures he observed with his microscope.Ada Smailbegovi interprets the term to mean what we now call protists, one-celled nucleated organisms that are themselves the result of ancient bacteria that fused to form these sophisticated cells.This is one example of many in the book stressing the theme of life forms living within or around each other and having close interrelationships.The idea of individual life is questioned again and again.A biologist might not have included a chapter on corals in Microbium, because they can grow so large, but they do spend the early portions of