Most Popular Books by Jessica Snyder Sachs

Looks at the role of forensic ecology--the study of plants, insects, chemicals, and other factors--found near a body in helping forensic pathologists determine the time of death.

Making Peace with Microbes Public sanitation and antibiotic drugs have brought about historic increases in the human life span; they have also unintentionally produced new health crises by disrupting the intimate, age-old balance between humans and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and our environment. As a result, antibiotic resistance now ranks among the gravest medical problems of modern times. Good Germs, Bad Germs addresses not only this issue but also what has become known as the "hygiene hypothesis"-- an argument that links the over-sanitation of modern life to now-epidemic increases in immune and other disorders. In telling the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs, Jessica Snyder Sachs explores our emerging understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the human body and its resident microbes--which outnumber its human cells by a factor of nine to one! The book also offers a hopeful look into a future in which antibiotics will be designed and used more wisely, and beyond that, to a day when we may replace antibacterial drugs and cleansers with bacterial ones--each custom-designed for maximum health benefits.

This is the story of the 2000 year-old search to pinpoint time of death. The author accompanies an eccentric group of entomologists, anthropologists, and botanists - a new kind of biological "Mod Squad"--Some of their grisliest, most intractable cases.

Discusses more than two hundred significant inventions, from the wheel to the microchip, and includes overviews of technological developments in important fields.