More than a look at tiny organisms living within the earth, Karen G. Lloyd's Intraterrestrials is a thrilling jaunt through scientific research and the experiences of a scientist. Lloyd's delight in her work shines across the pages and generates appreciation and excitement for even the most tedious aspects of research.
Lloyd, who is professor of earth sciences and the Wrigley Chair in Environmental Sciences at USC, eases readers into a world many people tend not to think about as she describes the habitat beneath the surface of Earth and the methods used to study this microscopic life. She then brings readers deeper by looking at how intraterrestrials survive in an environment so alien to the surface and how the discovery of the immense diversity of these tiny life-forms radically changed scientists' understanding of the evolutionary tree. Finally, Lloyd details how intraterrestrials explain why life on Earth formed in the first place and how they can point a way to a future free from the devastation of climate change.
Through her energetic tone, Lloyd makes microscopic organisms dynamic and full of personality. She illustrates the circumstances of scientific fieldwork, the methodology of which rarely makes it into scientific publications, she points out. She emphasizes the collaborative nature of her work and gives the layperson peeks behind the curtain of scientific communities, including a scientist exclaiming "bullshit" at an academic conference and a casual dinner conversation about solving obstacles in the scientific process. Laden with plenty of complex concepts such as DNA sequencing and thermodynamics, Intraterrestrials is nevertheless accessible and enthralling to readers at all levels of scientific expertise. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer