Around Tappan Square Mineral Spirits since retiring from oberlin College in 2001, former Oberlin Alumni Magazine editor Linda Grashoff has been obsessed by bacteria. Not in a germaphobe way—in fact, just the opposite. She has been exploring the benign bacteria in and along Ohio’s Vermilion River that make irides- cent films and colorful precipitates as the microbes interact with iron in the water. The result is They Breathe Iron: Artistic and Scientific Encounters with an Ancient Life Form, a hefty coffee table book full of beautiful photographs that she describes as “part science, part field guide, part art, and part artist’s statement.” A number of Oberlin- related people have had a role in the book, including Grashoff ’s husband, David H. Benzing, emeritus Robert S. Danforth professor of biology, who consulted on the book’s science, and David Orr, counselor to the president for sustainability and emeritus professor of environ- mental studies, who wrote the book’s forward. For more images and information, see lindagrashoff. wordpress.com (search for Leptothrix discophora). 4