The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Even Charles Darwin found the lowly earthworm fascinating: all their tiny individual labors in tilling the soil and nourishing it with their droppings add up over time to a massive collective impact on the landscape. In this absorbing, if occasionally gross, treatise, gardening journalist Stewart (From the Ground Up) delves into their dank subterranean world, detailing their problem-solving skills, sex lives (Darwin noted their "sexual passion") and shocking ability to re-grow a whole body from a severed segment (scientists have even sutured together parts of three different earthworms into a single Frankenworm). Intriguing in their own right, earthworms stand at the fulcrum of the balance of nature. In the wrong place, they can devastate forests, but in the right place, they boost farm yields, suppress pests and plant diseases, detoxify polluted soils and process raw sewage into inoffensive fertilizer; indeed, humanity's first great civilizations may have risen on the backs of earthworms, say some of the creature's most fervent champions. Stewart writes in a charming, meditative but scientifically grounded style that is informed by her personal relationship with the worms in her compost bin. In her telling, worms become metaphors-for the English working class, for the process of scientific rumination, for the redemption of death and decay by life and fertility-and serve as a touchstone for exploring the ecological view of things.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-In this fascinating book, readers are taken on a journey underground to see the impact worms have on humans and on our planet. Referring often to Charles Darwin's The Formation ofVegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations ofTheir Habits, Stewart educates on the vital role these creatures play in growing crops, how they can neutralize the effects of nuclear waste on soil, and their ability to regenerate new body parts. An avid gardener, the author begins with the worms crawling through her own backyard before visiting them in such destinations as an endangered redwood forest in California, a sewage-treatment plant in San Francisco, a nature preserve in Minnesota, and The Giant Worm Museum in Australia (which is shaped like a 325-foot-long worm). A book that's as enlightening as it is entertaining.-James O. Cahill, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
No less a scientist than Charles Darwin wrote one of his most popular books on how earthworms were responsible for creating the rich uppermost layer of soil, and garden columnist Stewart's equal fascination for this spineless, subterranean earth mover (and ingestor) shines through in the chatty text. She explains the differences between red worms that thrive in compost piles and worm bins, nightcrawlers that dig their deep burrows in the soil, and gray worms that live around plant roots. She examines the work of scientists as they discover new species of earthworms, looks at the role of earthworms in soil ecology, dissects the anatomy and taxonomy of the world's earthworms, and discusses the interactions of human and worm. The importance of earthworms to the organic farmer and backyard gardener is one of Stewart's key points. This quirky book will find a niche in all gardening and natural-history collections. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.' Charles Darwin; 'What would our lives be like if we took earthworms seriously, took the ground under our feet rather than the skies high above our heads, as the place to look, as well, eventually, as the place to be? It is as though we have been pointed in the wrong direction.' Adam Phillips, Darwin's Worms, 1999.

Product Description
In the tradition of the bestselling book The Botany of Desire comes this fascinating exploration of the world underground and one of its most amazing denizens. The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its role in the ecosystem is profound. It tills the soil, destroys microscopic organisms that cause plant disease, breaks down toxins, and turns soil into rich compost, creating the most fertile areas on earth. In her witty and offbeat style, Amy Stewart shows just how much depends on the humble worm. The august Charles Darwin devoted his last years to the meticulous study of these creatures, admiring their remarkable achievements. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures, he declared. With Darwin as her inspiration, Stewart weaves her own backyard investigations with those of the obsessed oligochaetologists, unearthing the complex life that exists beneath our feet. From the legendary giant Australian worm that burrows up to fifteen feet below ground to the modest nightcrawler that inspired Darwin to write his last book to Stewart's energetic red wigglers, The Earth Moved gives worms their due and exposes their hidden--and extraordinary--universe. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
In the tradition of the bestselling book The Botany of Desire comes this fascinating exploration of the world underground and one of its most amazing denizens. The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its role in the ecosystem is profound. It tills the soil, destroys microscopic organisms that cause plant disease, breaks down toxins, and turns soil into rich compost, creating the most fertile areas on earth. In her witty and offbeat style, Amy Stewart shows just how much depends on the humble worm. The august Charles Darwin devoted his last years to the meticulous study of these creatures, admiring their remarkable achievements. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures, he declared. With Darwin as her inspiration, Stewart weaves her own backyard investigations with those of the obsessed oligochaetologists, unearthing the complex life that exists beneath our feet. From the legendary giant Australian worm that burrows up to fifteen feet below ground to the modest nightcrawler that inspired Darwin to write his last book to Stewart's energetic red wigglers, The Earth Moved gives worms their due and exposes their hidden--and extraordinary--universe.

About the Author
Amy Stewart lives in northern California with her husband, two cats and several thousand worms. She is the author of From the Ground Up and is the garden columnist and book critic for the North Coast Journal. Her articles appear in a number of magazines, including Organic Gardening, Bird Watcher's Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
8 Bizarre Facts About Earthworms

The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its impact on the ecosystem is profound. Now, thanks to Amy Stewart, author of THE EARTH MOVED, earthworms of the world can stand a little taller.

* Worms' ancestors date back over 250 million years. They survived two mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs.
* There are over 4,500 species of earth worms and many more species have not yet been identified and cataloged.
* Worms are hermaphrodites. To mate, they line up head to tail and can stay that way for several hours.
* If you cut a worm in half, you will not get two worms; however, the end that contains the head will usually grow a new tail.
* Charles Darwin played the piano for worms, to see how they react to different notes. He breathed on them with various scents on his breath to see how they would react to different smells.
* A giant earthworm in the Pacific Northwest measures two or three feet long and secretes a mucus that smells just like lilies.
* An ordinary nightcrawler lives about five years. Giant Australian worms live over twenty years.
* Earthworms have been used as bioindicators to identify soil pollutants. They have also been fed pollutant-degrading bacteria, which they carry far below ground in pollution clean-up projects.

Who knew?