Can Germs Keep Us Healthy?

And I can't blame people for being worried about superbugs such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph aureus). It's nasty. But it's here, and getting germaphobic isn't going to help and could hurt if we end up making this bug even MORE drug resistant. So we need to take reasonable precautions—like getting a flu shot to reduce your risk of MRSA pneumonia on the heels of the flu.
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Hamilton, ON: Can you tell us a bit about your background before this book? What led you to become interested in this subject?
Jessica Snyder Sachs: Good question. Who the heck am I to be spouting off like this?

Way back in the late 1970s, I started out as a biochemistry major (on the Canadian side of the border, in fact, at the University of Victoria). I discovered I liked learning and writing about science more than I liked spending my days in a lab. For the last 20 years (yikes), I've been making my living as a science journalist.

As per a previous post, I was fascinated with the idea of the human body (live or dead) as an ecosystem of sorts.
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Oyster Bay, NY: How did you go about researching this book? What were the key things you we're trying to get at?
Jessica Snyder Sachs: I dogged the heels of dozens and dozens of scientists—spending time in their labs, pestering them with questions over the phone, reading their research.

I wanted to understand—and help readers understand—this dynamic relationship between Homo sapiens and this ocean of bacteria in which we live.
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