Everything you ever wanted to know about algae.
Algae as food, as fuel, perhaps even as solution to the problem of global warming.
I especially found the medical section interesting, have read lots about Robert Koch…but never from the perspective of his use of algae
Anyway, we’ll-researched and very readable ( )

This was engrossing from beginning to end, but especially for me in the beginning. I loved the section on eating seaweed the most, and am ready to scour the local Asian markets to see what new seaweeds we can add to our diet. The final section is on climate change, and while I understand why the book was structured that way, I got overwhelmed and struggled to finish the book for a while. It's real information! It's important information! It just also hurts. But there are real cool things scientists are doing about it using algae, and hopefully it will help. ( )

“Algae are powerful enough on their own to change life on the planet. Billions of years ago they oxygenated the oceans and the air, then sent the planet into a deep freeze. They killed or banished the oceans’ anaerobic organism and covered the land in plants,” says Ruth Kassinger in Slime. Though this quote comes near the end of the book, the beginning really does tell the story eloquently. Not only are algae our past, they are also our future.

Before there were plants, before there was even oxygen, there were algae. With no predators, or much of anything really, algae pumped out oxygen from their spots in the water. It was, and is, simple photosynthesis, using the sun to their advantage. Eventually, they developed into land-based plants that continued the service ashore, while some kinds of algae continually sank to the ocean floor, sequestering carbon dioxide and becoming massive oil deposits. In other words, we owe pretty much everything to algae, the oldest lifeforms still around.

This story of algae’s role in life on Earth is fascinating, and it gives way to the astounding variety of algae, and how people all over the world have taken their local versions into their lives, and their stomachs. Algae filter the water they live in, keeping a shopping list of vitamins and minerals within them, and their larger versions – seaweeds.

Algae cool the planet. They block the sun, cool the water, provide the seeds for clouds, and sequester CO2. They are powerful enough to cause ice ages. They also color coral and provide shelter for a huge variety of underwater life. We are however, managing to overcome those services, as Kassinger points out numerous times, in different contexts.

There are now 400 dead zones in the oceans of the world, with more and longer lasting algal blooms forecast. A dead zone contains no oxygen, so nothing can live there. No plankton, no bottom feeders, no fish. The Baltic’s dead zone is the size of Montana, Kassinger says. Global warming is the cause, and we don’t know how bad things will get because of it. But we’re working on finding out. Algal blooms are occurring in freshwater lakes more and more, as everything warms to accommodate algae. Fertilizer, topsoil and pesticides complete the invitation to smelly red or green carpets of algae all summer long.

Kassinger describes and uses lovely, clear illustrations by Shanthi Chandrasekar to demonstrate the varieties of algae and seaweed. Seaweed in particular is a cornucopia of nutrition we are only just getting into in the West. From iodine to iron to vitamin Bs, seaweed is a largely untapped blessing. It requires no arable land, no fertilizers and is easy to harvest.

After this fast start, the bulk of the book is a little less satisfying, as Kassinger hits the road, visiting companies all over the world that are trying to make something more out of algae and seaweed. She describes endless factories and labs where someone is trying to leverage them. They are making biofuel, animal foods, biostimulants (super fertilizers), skin creams, or dreaming up geo-engineering projects to make algae sop up more of the CO2 we keep pumping out, while producing more oxygen. It’s an endless tour of failed startups from insufficinet capital, the price of oil falling (thanks to fracking) and less than efficacious management. There are also seaweed harvesters, who rake in, process and sell the raw or treated product for simple consumption. Some are purists, some are tinkerers. A lot of scientists seem to be playing with algae and seaweed DNA, trying to make them do more, or do things they were never intended to do. But the story of the algae and evolution easily tops them all.

Kassinger writes with a light touch, despite the tech terms and biological classifications. She constantly exhibits her passion for her subject, to the point of getting diver certification. It’s a fun read as well as an education. Clearly, it is vastly more important to life on Earth than most know. And as we run out of land, algae will become an even more important part of daily life.

I can’t think of another science book I’ve reviewed that contained recipes at the back.

David Wineberg ( )