Exploitation of microorganisms - D. Gareth Jones

Microbiology may be described as one of the younger sciences with its history, as a precise subject, only dating as far back as Pasteur in the mid 1800s and his revelation both of the role of microorganisms in nature and their importance to human welfare. Medical scientists rapidly took up the challenge, with their area of microbiology flourishing and expanding almost in complete isolation from the rest of biology. We now know, of course, that microorganisms have always played an important, if not essential role, in the biosphere with fermented foods and beverages, plant and animal diseases and nutrient cycling foremost in their sphere of activities. Within the last twenty years, microbiology has received two enormous boosts with the developments in microbial genetics and genetic engineering probably being the most influential, and the greater awareness of pollution and environmental sustainability following a close second. In 1990, your editor had the privilege and pleasure of being elected as President of The Association of Applied Biologists in the United King- dom and, as the topic for his three-day Presidential Conference, chose 'The exploitation of microorganisms in applied biology'. This meeting stimu- lated great interest in a wide range of subject areas, from weed control to nematology, from plant breeding to plant pathology, from mushrooms to mycorrhiza. The proceedings of this meeting were published in Aspects of Applied Biology, No. 24, 1990.

17 papers which review the history, current state-of-the art
and future possibilities for different areas of microbial
exploitation. -
Quarterly Journal of Forestry; The editor is to be
commended on
bringing together many of the leading exponents in these
various
fields, and producing a reference work which will be of
immense value
to those teaching applied microbiology courses ... this
well-produces
book deserves to find its way into the libraries of
Departments of
Microbiology world-wide, in both developed and
developing countries -
World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology;
...the quality of the
contributions is uniformly high...the various
chapters are written
with the intention of being both interesting and
informative...recommended with confidence to any student...both the
Editor and Publisher are to be congratulated on a quite outstanding
addition to the literature of microbiology. - Food Science and
Technology Today; ...a most useful compilation of reviews which will
provide final year undergraduates, postgraduates and other interested
groups with source material on applied microbiology for some years to
come. - Journal Chemical Technology and Biotechnology; ...this is an
informative book that will appael to students and to many who might
find textbooks of plant pathology or environmental microbiology much
more forbidding. - Science in parliament Vol 51 No 3 june 1994; ...a
very useful addition to the library bookshelf... - Experimental
Agriculture; This is an informative book that will appeal to students
and to many who might find textbooks of plant pathology or
environmental microbiology much more forbidding...the volume [is]
supplied with a helpfully comprehensive index - Science in Parliament