"They're everywhere. Silent and invisible to the naked eye, they're on everything we touch, eat, breathe - on every single inch of our skin. And despite the remarkable advances of science, germs are challenging medicine in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Due to an explosion of infections never before reported in modern history and a new germ horror story surfacing every year, it's no small wonder that the world is up in arms - and that antibacterial soaps are a billion-dollar business.

Now, renowned microbiologist Philip Tierno cuts through the media hype with the compulsively readable Secret Life of Germs, revealing exactly where the greatest threats may be hiding.".

"The Secret Life of Germs provides an inside view of this fascinating and elegantly ordered microscopic world - from the common cold, E. coli, and Lyme disease to encephalitis, mad cow disease, and flesh-eating bacteria. It takes readers on a historical survey of the culprits of disease and explores the effect that they - and the scientists who study them - have had on our world."--BOOK JACKET.