※ Introduction ※

The authors of this picture book is Mr. and Mrs Bieri.

Atlant Bieri, a foster son of Billy Meier, is a science journalist and book author. Among other things, he writes for the Globi non-fiction line about energy, robotics, invasive species and microbes.

Siriporn Bieri is an environmental scientist and freelance illustrator. She prefers to work with pencil, ink and brush and has illustrated, among other things, a science comic about aphids, a Globi course about invasive species, information boards about biodiversity in the city and a teaching aid about butterflies.

Hence, this picture book is the product of merging the professional expertise of the couple.

This picture book is about one of the most important resources of mankind. Under our feet are teemed with the strangest forms of life.

The soil is one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world. In every square meter there are hundreds of isopods, jumping bugs and millions of nematodes. This book shows what they look like, what exactly they do in the soil and what they do for us humans and the ecosystem.

The production of most food depends directly or indirectly on them. If it were not for the billions of microorganisms, we would have nothing to eat. They also provide clean drinking water and help scientists to answer the big questions of humanity, like what ageing is and how we can slow it down.

The book was written in connection with the Citizen Science project Evidence-Piece of Underpants. This project by Agrescrpe and the University of Zurich aims to scientifically investigate the health of the soil using buried pants.