In his famous book “I, Robot”, science-fiction author Isaac Asimov, introduced three laws of robotics:
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
When we think about microbiomes and their symbiotic relationships with all living beings on our planet (including us) we can associate to the Asimov´s three laws to some extent:
First, microbiomes don´t want to harm us. On the contrary, by producing beneficial chemicals and by interacting with our organ systems they can work FOR us.
Second, microbiomes will take “orders” from us, through the nutrients we´re feeding them.
Finally, if we don´t treat them well (for example by taking antibiotics or toxic chemicals), they might no longer protect us. In this case, few of the “bad” microbes might take over causing a disease.
In the previous years, we saw a rapid expansion of the microbiome research. This topic is becoming more popular, not only among specialists, but also among the general public.
Several great books have been already published in the field, focusing on some aspects of human microbiome, for example nutrition or gut microbiome. Few others have tried to cover more than gut, addressing for example, connections between gut microbiome and brain or our overall health and longevity.
Our feeling was that a book is needed, which will cover all current issues regarding human microbiomes: from head-to-toe, from historical perspectives, the stand of our current knowledge, the health issues, practical use of our knowledge, actual trends and future challenges. This how we boarded on exciting journey of creating this book, bringing in experts from various areas of the microbiome research and its applications. Our book will be great for common readers to learn about human microbiomes, but also for specialists who want to have a general overview, or a starting point to get into this broad field.
A great “wind to our sails” came from the novel publishing platform called “Let´s Author”, which through an innovative “open-authoring” process enables anybody to easily become an author or a co-author.
Soon, we are appoaching the completition of the book. The business model of “Let´s Author” is to fund the production of the book by crowdfunding. If you like to become our supporter, please click HERE and follow the links for pre-ordering one of the versions (online, paperback or hardcover). We need to pre-sell 300 copies by the end of May.
All supporters will be the first to get a copy and, their names will be listed inside the book.
I thank you all in advance and I´m sure you will enjoy our story of the human microbiomes!
Heidelberg, 13.4.2022
Dr. Vladimir Jakovljevic
