THERE ARE MORE ANIMALS ON EARTH THAN STARS IN THE GALAXY.... If it weren't for the lowly dung beetle Africa's savannas would die.... Seventy trillion bacteria live and aid digestion in one human being's large intestine....The cure for AIDS may be hidden in a Brazilian rain forest.
Hundreds of fascinating facts, gathered with the help of the World Conservation Monitoring Center, combine in Life Counts to sketch a portrait of Earth's amazing biodiver- sity: its untold quintillions of creatures help- ing each other survive. These creatures are the framework upon which our civilizations are built and, though we have so far studied (by some estimations) less than 1 percent of them, our economies, health, and indeed our lives depend on understanding them - and living alongside them-more effectively...