Paperback, 496 pages
English language
Published Feb. 25, 2025 by Penguin Books.
Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air—and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus.
In Air-Borne, award-winning New York Times columnist and author Carl Zimmer leads us on an odyssey through the living atmosphere and through the history of its discovery. We travel to the tops of mountain glaciers, where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air, and follow Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh above the clouds, where they conducted groundbreaking experiments. We meet the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology including William and Mildred Wells, who tried for decades to warn the world about airborne infections, only to die in obscurity.
Air-Borne chronicles the dark side of aerobiology …
Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air—and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus.
In Air-Borne, award-winning New York Times columnist and author Carl Zimmer leads us on an odyssey through the living atmosphere and through the history of its discovery. We travel to the tops of mountain glaciers, where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air, and follow Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh above the clouds, where they conducted groundbreaking experiments. We meet the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology including William and Mildred Wells, who tried for decades to warn the world about airborne infections, only to die in obscurity.
Air-Borne chronicles the dark side of aerobiology with gripping accounts of how the United States and the Soviet Union clandestinely built arsenals of airborne biological weapons designed to spread anthrax, smallpox, and an array of other pathogens. Air-Borne also leaves readers looking at the world with new eyes—as a place where the oceans and forests loft trillions of cells into the air, where microbes eat clouds, and where life soars thousands of miles on the wind.
Weaving together gripping history with the latest reporting on Covid and other threats to global health, Air-Borne surprises us on every page as it reveals the hidden world of the air.
Carl Zimmer traces the chronic underappreciation of aerobiology from the origins of the field to the inconsistent advisories by public health authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. As usual, he tells well-researched stories of scientists and citizens in a compassionate way. From interested people to experts, anyone can learn new things from this book.
A fascinating book that looks at the history of air-borne diseases, from the people who investigated the possibility that some diseases might be air-borne, to the current day COVID-19 outbreak, which many (including the WHO) initially declared was not an air-borne disease, until the weight of evidence and studies eventually forced authorities to accept that it was air-borne. Hopefully, the lessons to be learned from COVID-19 may be used to blunt the effects of the next air-borne pandemic.
The book starts with the history of diseases, between those who believe diseases were spread by contagion (close contact) and by miasmas ('bad air'). The germ theory of diseases would help settle the matter on the side of contagion. But those who studied the air would find that it was filled with particles (spores, fungi and germs), even high in the stratosphere. While there was evidence that some diseases, like plant …
A fascinating book that looks at the history of air-borne diseases, from the people who investigated the possibility that some diseases might be air-borne, to the current day COVID-19 outbreak, which many (including the WHO) initially declared was not an air-borne disease, until the weight of evidence and studies eventually forced authorities to accept that it was air-borne. Hopefully, the lessons to be learned from COVID-19 may be used to blunt the effects of the next air-borne pandemic.
The book starts with the history of diseases, between those who believe diseases were spread by contagion (close contact) and by miasmas ('bad air'). The germ theory of diseases would help settle the matter on the side of contagion. But those who studied the air would find that it was filled with particles (spores, fungi and germs), even high in the stratosphere. While there was evidence that some diseases, like plant rust, could be spread by air, most researches dismiss it, believing that disease causing particles were mainly spread by close contact. As most, some diseases may be spread by droplets (via coughs and sneezes) but the droplets were considered too heavy to be kept air-borne for long.
But some scientists did believe that some diseases, like influenza, tuberculosis or measles, could be air-borne. They ran experiments, using ultraviolet lights to sterilise the air, and equipment to capture air-borne diseases particles, to gather evidence. But such experiments are hard to run and to reproduce properly. It also didn't help that one of the principle scientists advocating for air-borne diseases featured in the book, William Firth Wells, was considered hard to work with and was his own worst enemy at advocating for air-borne diseases.
During the world wars, research into air-borne diseases would turn from prevention to causing diseases, especially in enemy areas. Bioweapons were developed (like rust or anthrax) but never deployed at large scale as the effects were either not great enough or not specific enough (diseases don't discriminate over who gets infected). But accidents do occur, showing the effects bioweapons could have on populations if they were ever used.
Eventually, major health organisations, like the US CDC (Centre for Disease Control) would dismiss most of the work on air-borne diseases. One unfortunate 'fact' that would emerge from this episode was the belief that only particles smaller than 5 microns can be air-borne. This was a mis-statement, as only such tiny particles can penetrate deep into the lungs to cause diseases like tuberculosis: larger particles could still be air-borne and cause diseases if they do not have to penetrate as deeply (like COVID-19).
Moving to the modern era, the book looks at some pandemics and incidents (like bird flu, Ebola, AIDS, anthrax attacks) that would cause panics over whether they could become air-borne diseases. These would divert attention and resources from the few known air-borne diseases, preventing research into methods to make the air safer (like providing proper ventilation and filtration).
Then, COVID-19 appears, causing a global pandemic. While vaccines would eventually help end it, the death toll might have been lower if COVID-19 had been recognised as an air-borne disease earlier, leading to better prevention methods like better ventilation, instead of promoting less effective methods like social distancing or constant handwashing.
Today, there is now more research into air-borne diseases and to particles in the air in general. Fast DNA sequencing and other methods have now shown that air-borne particles can travel high in the air and for thousands of miles. Better ventilation and methods to sterilise and filter the air are being advocated for better health.
Hopefully, we are now better prepared when the next air-borne pandemic appears.
