Parasite Rex

Author: Carl Zimmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074320011X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites control the minds of their hosts, sending them to their destruction. IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites are masters of chemical warfare and camouflage, able to cloak themselves with their hosts' own molecules. IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites steer the course of evolution, where the majority of species are parasites. WELCOME TO EARTH. For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and in the darkest shadows of science. Yet these creatures are among the world's most successful and sophisticated organisms. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer deftly balances the scientific and the disgusting as he takes readers on a fantastic voyage. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the fetid parasite haven of southern Sudan, Zimmer graphically brings to life how parasites can change DNA, rewire the brain, make men more distrustful and women more outgoing, and turn hosts into the living dead. This thorough, gracefully written book brings parasites out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us about the most fundamental survival tactics in the universe.

New Guinea Tapeworms And Jewish Grandmothers

Author: Robert S Desowitz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393304268
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
A medical ecologist examines the threat posed by disease-carrying parasites and insects and identifies the conditions--miracle drugs, destruction of natural controls--that have encouraged them to flourish.

Parasitology

Author: Eric Loker
Publisher: Garland Science
ISBN: 1317407725
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 577

Book Description
Parasitology: A Conceptual Approach focuses on the conceptual basis of parasitology, with the goal of providing students with an enriched view of parasites and their biology. Concentrating on concepts will enable readers to gain a broader perspective that will increase their ability to think critically about all kinds of parasitic associations. The interfaces between the study of parasitism and prominent biological disciplines such as biodiversity, immunology, ecology, evolution, conservation biology, and disease control are highlighted. Studying individual parasites is an essential part of parasitology so Parasitology: A Conceptual Approach contains an appendix which provides a concise overview of the biology of important human and veterinary parasites. End-of-chapter questions are provided, as is an instructor manual.

Parasites

Author: Rosemary Drisdelle
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520259386
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
The evolution and life history of parasites, their role in shaping human history, as well as future threats posed by them.

Evolution

Author: Carl Zimmer
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062038230
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
“This brilliant book is a virtual Voyage of the Beagle! Carl Zimmer shows, with the benefit of a hundred and fifty years of hindsight, how right Darwin was.” —Steve Jones, author of Darwin’s Ghost Darwin’s The Origin of Species was breathtaking—beautifully written, staunchly defended, defiantly radical. Yet it emerged long before modern genetics, molecular biology, and contemporary findings in paleontology. In this remarkable book, a rich and up-to-date view of evolution is presented that explores the far-reaching implications of Darwin’s theory. At a time when controversies surrounding creationism and education are bursting into public consciousness, this book’s emphasis on the power, significance, and relevance of evolution will make it a catalyst for public debate. Evolution marks a turning point in the 150-year debate and will be an indispensable asset to any serious reader with an interest in the life sciences, a passion for truth in education, or a concern for the future of the planet. “The evolution of life over four billion years is a grand narrative, full of plots, intrigues, surprises and deaths. Carl Zimmer tells the tale with zest and style.” —Matt Ridley, New York Times–bestselling author “Proceeding from the flurry of preparations for Darwin’s famous voyage, Carl Zimmer leads us off on a journey of our own, tracking the development—and the implications—of one of the most powerful ideas in the biological sciences.” —Scientific American “Science writer Zimmer does a superb job of providing a sweeping overview of most of the topics critical to understanding evolution, presenting his material from both a historical and a topical perspective.” —Publishers Weekly “Popular science that will truly be popular.” —Booklist

At the Water's Edge

Author: Carl Zimmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684856239
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Everybody Out of the Pond At the Water's Edge will change the way you think about your place in the world. The awesome journey of life's transformation from the first microbes 4 billion years ago to Homo sapiens today is an epic that we are only now beginning to grasp. Magnificent and bizarre, it is the story of how we got here, what we left behind, and what we brought with us. We all know about evolution, but it still seems absurd that our ancestors were fish. Darwin's idea of natural selection was the key to solving generation-to-generation evolution -- microevolution -- but it could only point us toward a complete explanation, still to come, of the engines of macroevolution, the transformation of body shapes across millions of years. Now, drawing on the latest fossil discoveries and breakthrough scientific analysis, Carl Zimmer reveals how macroevolution works. Escorting us along the trail of discovery up to the current dramatic research in paleontology, ecology, genetics, and embryology, Zimmer shows how scientists today are unveiling the secrets of life that biologists struggled with two centuries ago. In this book, you will find a dazzling, brash literary talent and a rigorous scientific sensibility gracefully brought together. Carl Zimmer provides a comprehensive, lucid, and authoritative answer to the mystery of how nature actually made itself.

A Planet of Viruses

Author: Carl Zimmer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022632026X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133

Book Description
For years, scientists have been warning us that a pandemic was all but inevitable. Now it's here, and the rest of us have a lot to learn. Fortunately, science writer Carl Zimmer is here to guide us. In this compact volume, he tells the story of how the smallest living things known to science can bring an entire planet of people to a halt--and what we can learn from how we've defeated them in the past. Planet of Viruses covers such threats as Ebola, MERS, and chikungunya virus; tells about recent scientific discoveries, such as a hundred-million-year-old virus that infected the common ancestor of armadillos, elephants, and humans; and shares new findings that show why climate change may lead to even deadlier outbreaks. Zimmer’s lucid explanations and fascinating stories demonstrate how deeply humans and viruses are intertwined. Viruses helped give rise to the first life-forms, are responsible for many of our most devastating diseases, and will continue to control our fate for centuries. Thoroughly readable, and, for all its honesty about the threats, as reassuring as it is frightening, A Planet of Viruses is a fascinating tour of a world we all need to better understand.

Parasitism

Author: Timothy M. Goater
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521190282
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 515

Book Description
Synthesizes the latest developments in the ecology and evolution of animal parasites for a new generation of parasitologists.

Parasites and the Behavior of Animals

Author: Janice Moore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019534913X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Book Description
When a parasite invades an ant, does the ant behave like other ants? Maybe not-and if it doesn't, who, if anyone, benefits from the altered behaviors? The parasite? The ant? Parasites and the Behavior of Animals shows that parasite-induced behavioral alterations are more common than we might realize, and it places these alterations in an evolutionary and ecological context. Emphasizing eukaryotic parasites, the book examines the adaptive nature of behavioral changes associated with parasitism, exploring the effects of these changes on parasite transmission, parasite avoidance, and the fitness of both host and parasite. The behavioral changes and their effects are not always straightforward. To the extent that virulence, for instance, is linked to parasite transmission, the evolutionary interests of parasite and host will diverge, and the current winner of the contest to maximize reproductive rates may not be clear, or, for that matter, inevitable. Nonetheless, by affecting susceptibility, host/parasite lifespan and fecundity, and transmission itself, host behavior influences parameters that are basic to our comprehension of how parasites invade host populations, and fundamentally, how parasites evolve. Such an understanding is important for a wide range of scientists, from ecologists and parasitologists to evolutionary, conservation and behavioral biologists: The behavioral alterations that parasites induce can subtly and profoundly affect the distribution and abundance of animals.

The Half-Life of Facts

Author: Samuel Arbesman
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 159184651X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
New insights from the science of science Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. Samuel Arbesman shows us how knowledge in most fields evolves systematically and predictably, and how this evolution unfolds in a fascinating way that can have a powerful impact on our lives. He takes us through a wide variety of fields, including those that change quickly, over the course of a few years, or over the span of centuries.