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Title: Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life by David W. Wolfe ISBN: 0-7382-0679-2 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (7 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Examines unexplored terrain
Comment: This natural history of subterranean life examines unexplored terrain and its unique and varied habitats, from microscopic life to small water bears. Particularly intriguing are the links made between subterranean life and its potentials for assisting mankind.

Rating: 2
Summary: Skimming the (sub)surface
Comment: This book is science at the level one sees on television. The emphasis is on the strange and unusual, liberally spiced with the author's opinions and prejudices. Alternative theories and explanations are either ignored or dismissed out of hand.

Suitable for a juvenile audience.

Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating exploration; very readable
Comment: A sea change in our attitude toward life has occurred in recent years owing to the discovery of extremophiles, microorganisms that can live in extreme environments such as the scalding waters of Yellowstone Park or deep under the ocean near vents of molten rock, or simply underground. These life forms, previously unknown, are now believed by some to constitute a majority of the shear weight of life on this planet. That life can exist without oxygen has long been known (indeed the first life forms lived without oxygen), but to exist without the products of photosynthesis, at least the indirect products, was thought impossible. Now we know that some life forms can use purely chemical means for obtaining energy, and do not need sunlight at all.

David W. Wolfe, Associate Professor of Plant Ecology at Cornell, fired by his own enthusiasm for things extreme and underground, explores these ideas and findings in a captivating way in this informative book. He begins with the soil, what it is made of, how it was formed. "In a handful of typical healthy soil there are more creatures than there are humans on the entire planet," he advises us on page one. He explores the relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and their above ground symbionts, noting that within that same handful of soil there are "hundreds of miles of fungal threads." There are also within one square yard of soil "billions of microscopic roundworms called nematodes, anywhere from a dozen to several hundred of the much larger earthworms, and 100,000 to 5000,000 insects and other arthropods." He points out that many of these creatures "defy classification; they simply have never been seen before." (p. 2)

One of the problems that scientists encounter in trying to study the microorganisms of the soil is that they can't culture them in the lab. "They can't survive when isolated from their neighbors," Wolfe writes. And therein lies perhaps the central tale of this extremely interesting book, namely that we are all of an ecology here on this planet earth, and the interactions and mutualisms and co-dependencies of our existence are as yet only dimly perceived. Remember the biosphere experiment in the Arizona desert some years ago? It failed because the participants had no idea how to create a self-sustaining ecosystem mainly because they were ignorant of the work of the myriad creatures that live in, on, and under the soil.

Wolfe explores the relatively new (and very exciting) idea that life on earth did not begin in something like Darwin's warm pond, but instead deep underground, safe and secure from the horrendous activities on the surface. This idea is what is currently firing our excitement about exploring under the surface of Mars and some of the moons of the gas giants in search of the life that we now know might exist there. He looks into clay as the precursor of bio-replication, and as a catalyst, showing how clay crystals "have an organized structure" that is "heritable just as the mutations of real genes are." (p. 29)

Wolfe also explores how earthworms, prairie dogs and other life forms help to create the top soil upon which our life on earth depends. He looks into the work of Carl Woese and explains how the tree of life was shaken to its very roots by Woese's discovery of a new domain of life, and how the tree was reconstructed into a "universal tree of life" containing three distinct domains, Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. Woese and others did this through rRNA analysis. It is revolutionary to note that the base of the tree on page 65 is shaded entirely with "heat-loving microbes," the extremophiles now recognized as our ancient ancestors.

There is so much more to discuss in this modest, yet highly informative book, including the chemical warfare practiced by soil microbes, their importance in medicine, agriculture, and in maintaining the homeostasis of the planet, and the threat from human activities, topsoil erosion, acid rain, etc. But let me summarize by saying as I read this book I was struck once again with the massive interdependence of all life, forcing me to see mutualism and cooperation between and among species as the fundamental basis of life and not the long revered concept of competition. I suspect that before long the general view of life on earth will be one of diversity in harmony; indeed, I am becoming more and more convinced that the idea of Gaia, the planet as a life form itself, is a viable one.

Professor Wolfe ends the book with a warning not to "naively assume that science and technology will come up with a quick fix to avert the environmental train wreck we are headed toward." (p. 185). It is only through knowledge and a "tempering of our aggressive instinct to " that we will be able "to protect the living soil resource for future generations." (p. 186)

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