Through the instrument of his fictional narrator, the extremophyle prokaryote Thermotoga maritima , the author tells the story of a convention of microbes convened for the purpose of rebutting human assigned taxonomic names. Disgruntled that humans often name them after some scientist of the place of their discovery, the microbes discuss their biology, function, adaptation to environments, defense against human attacks, and other activities in order to suggest that they should by named after their attributes. A final session invites entries for a renaming of homo sapiens that reflects the point of view of the microbes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)