We've all seen photos of those microscopic monsters that prowl around in beds (but surely not in ours?). As Robert Dunn explains, no one can avoid them, and they are one of nature's biggest little success stories. Dust rises in the summer air, swirlsin the wind and settles back down. Dust covers the plants on the side of the road and grows thick on top of our shelves and under our beds. Dust rises on one continent and settles upon another. Dust is neither mineral, nor animal, but instead a miasma,a sort of falling apart of things. Dust is dust, or so it seemed, until the 1920s, when scientists began searching houses for mites. Scientists found thousands of mites where they had expected several. House dust is not dust after all. It is mostly mitesand human skin. House dust is alive.
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