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Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
Almost every animal will at some time or another become the home of a parasite. Not only are parasites the most successful life-forms on Earth, they triggered the development of sex, shape ecosystems, and have driven the engine of evolution. Zimmer describes the frightening and amazing ingenuity these commando invaders use to devour their hosts from the inside and control their behaviour.
Sacculina carcini makes its home in an unlucky crab and proceeds to eat everything but what the crab needs to put food in its mouth, which Sacculina then consumes. Single-celled Toxoplasma gondi has an even more insidious role, for it can invade the human brain and cause personality changes, making its host less afraid and more prone to danger and a violent end - so that, in the carnage, it will be able to move on to another host. Finally, Zimmer concludes that humankind itself is a new kind of parasite, one that preys on the entire earth. If we are to achieve the sophistication of the parasites on display here in vivid detail, if we are to promote the flourishing of life in all its diversity as they do, we must learn the ways nature lives with itself, the laws of Parasite Rex.
Sacculina carcini makes its home in an unlucky crab and proceeds to eat everything but what the crab needs to put food in its mouth, which Sacculina then consumes. Single-celled Toxoplasma gondi has an even more insidious role, for it can invade the human brain and cause personality changes, making its host less afraid and more prone to danger and a violent end - so that, in the carnage, it will be able to move on to another host. Finally, Zimmer concludes that humankind itself is a new kind of parasite, one that preys on the entire earth. If we are to achieve the sophistication of the parasites on display here in vivid detail, if we are to promote the flourishing of life in all its diversity as they do, we must learn the ways nature lives with itself, the laws of Parasite Rex.
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First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Carl Zimmer
38 books1,584 followersCarl Zimmer is a columnist for the New York Times and the author of 13 books about science. His latest book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, will be published in May 2018. Zimmer is a frequent guest on Radiolab and has written hundreds of articles for magazines such as National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom a species of tapeworm has been named. Visit him at carlzimmer.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/carlzimmerauthor and on Twitter @carlzimmer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 486 reviews
February 12, 2019
"Every living thing has at least one parasite that lives inside it or on it. Many, like leopard frogs and humans, have many more. There’s a parrot in Mexico with thirty different species of mites on its feathers alone. And the parasites themselves have parasites, and some of those parasites have parasites of their own.
Scientists have no idea just how many species of parasites there are, but they do know one dazzling thing: parasites make up the majority of species on Earth. According to one estimate, parasites may outnumber free-living species four to one. In other words, the study of life is, for the most part, parasitology."
There's really not a lot more to say after that is there?
Well, a bit. The author who is a wonderful writer and injects his own personality into this heavy, scientific book, is not without humour. He tells a story of having been set up on a blind date, and telling the lady all about his great enthusiasm for parasites. The date progressed no further!
He really is enamoured of these nasty little creatures, especially it seems, the ones that live in us. He finds great beauty in their body forms. I personally find them exceedingly ugly and if they were big, would be nightmarish in the manner of cockroaches. Only worse.
The book was hard to read, I kept having to reread parts because I have no academic background in science, but in the end I understood everything. The previous book to this I read was She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity which was even harder and more technical but even more rewarding (a 10 star book). My next one is going to be the same author's book on viruses, A Planet of Viruses. I really like books that teach me something and enlarge my world view, especially when they are as well written as these.
Scientists have no idea just how many species of parasites there are, but they do know one dazzling thing: parasites make up the majority of species on Earth. According to one estimate, parasites may outnumber free-living species four to one. In other words, the study of life is, for the most part, parasitology."
There's really not a lot more to say after that is there?
Well, a bit. The author who is a wonderful writer and injects his own personality into this heavy, scientific book, is not without humour. He tells a story of having been set up on a blind date, and telling the lady all about his great enthusiasm for parasites. The date progressed no further!
He really is enamoured of these nasty little creatures, especially it seems, the ones that live in us. He finds great beauty in their body forms. I personally find them exceedingly ugly and if they were big, would be nightmarish in the manner of cockroaches. Only worse.
The book was hard to read, I kept having to reread parts because I have no academic background in science, but in the end I understood everything. The previous book to this I read was She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity which was even harder and more technical but even more rewarding (a 10 star book). My next one is going to be the same author's book on viruses, A Planet of Viruses. I really like books that teach me something and enlarge my world view, especially when they are as well written as these.
May 20, 2015
This book is disgusting almost beyond words. For instance there are 5,000 species of tape worm, and the one we associate with human beings can grow inside us, in our intestines, to be 60 feet long. And that is just the beginning of the disgustingness! Ewwwwww!
On the other hand the book is utterly fascinating, and it illustrates with stunning clarity some of the endless conceits and machinations of nature. I am tempted to say "intelligence" of nature, because this level complexity and dove-tailing of species seems almost too miraculous to have happened on its own, but this is just Darwinian jiggery pokery at its best.
Zimmer is an excellent writer too, and most of the book is hugely readable. I don't think it gets off to a good start though, it seemed a bit scatty and all-over-the place to begin with, but hang in there, as rest of it is brilliant. Highly, highly recommended.
Herewith some photographs illustrating parasite horribleness.
And herewith some (fairly copious) notes I have taken for my own interest; mostly just verbatim extracts from the book.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The photographs were copied from the book.
On the other hand the book is utterly fascinating, and it illustrates with stunning clarity some of the endless conceits and machinations of nature. I am tempted to say "intelligence" of nature, because this level complexity and dove-tailing of species seems almost too miraculous to have happened on its own, but this is just Darwinian jiggery pokery at its best.
Zimmer is an excellent writer too, and most of the book is hugely readable. I don't think it gets off to a good start though, it seemed a bit scatty and all-over-the place to begin with, but hang in there, as rest of it is brilliant. Highly, highly recommended.
Herewith some photographs illustrating parasite horribleness.
And herewith some (fairly copious) notes I have taken for my own interest; mostly just verbatim extracts from the book.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The photographs were copied from the book.
March 10, 2013
Parasite Rex is about parasites and the history of parasitology. Nature is pretty gross. That's about the only way I can think of o describe this book.
Let me tell you, there are some crazy creatures out there. I'm going to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of species of tapeworms and parasitic wasps and go to the really crazy ones. Like Cymothoa exigua, a crustacean that replaces a fish's tongue, or Sacculina, a barnacle-like parasite that uses a crab like a puppet. And that's just the tip of the disgusting iceberg.
Did you know parasites influence the behavior of their hosts in any number of ways? Like putting heir host in danger in order to perpetuate their life cycle? Crazy stuff.
It's not all great, though. It could have used more pictures and the writing stye could be a little more accessible. Still, it's an informative read and made me wonder why we aren't all riddled with parasites.
Let me tell you, there are some crazy creatures out there. I'm going to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of species of tapeworms and parasitic wasps and go to the really crazy ones. Like Cymothoa exigua, a crustacean that replaces a fish's tongue, or Sacculina, a barnacle-like parasite that uses a crab like a puppet. And that's just the tip of the disgusting iceberg.
Did you know parasites influence the behavior of their hosts in any number of ways? Like putting heir host in danger in order to perpetuate their life cycle? Crazy stuff.
It's not all great, though. It could have used more pictures and the writing stye could be a little more accessible. Still, it's an informative read and made me wonder why we aren't all riddled with parasites.
June 10, 2024
Fascinating look at interdependent relationships among living organisms, the complex interactions between parasite and host, and how very little we know about the nature of life on earth.
Beyond the creep factor, there is much here to think about. For example, does a healthy ecosystem actually depend on parasites to thrive? How much of evolution occurs as a result of the partnership between parasite and host?
The human animal lives in a web of connections— most of which we try very hard to ignore. Yet the health of an ecosystem may actually depend on the balance between parasites and host.
Most of these creatures, and their function, remain almost completely unknown. People mourn the extinction of a creature, but each animal or bird actually functions as its own little complex world, and each extinction is the death of untold numbers of life forms.
Who ever mourns the unique parasites of passenger pigeons, now also extinct?
Beyond the creep factor, there is much here to think about. For example, does a healthy ecosystem actually depend on parasites to thrive? How much of evolution occurs as a result of the partnership between parasite and host?
The human animal lives in a web of connections— most of which we try very hard to ignore. Yet the health of an ecosystem may actually depend on the balance between parasites and host.
Most of these creatures, and their function, remain almost completely unknown. People mourn the extinction of a creature, but each animal or bird actually functions as its own little complex world, and each extinction is the death of untold numbers of life forms.
Who ever mourns the unique parasites of passenger pigeons, now also extinct?
February 22, 2020
Wow, what a book!
This is a non-fic that can change your world picture. When I started it, I expected more or less average run of the mill collection of stories about parasites. However, this is so much more!
The book starts with initial theories of parasites: people observed them thru the centuries but they posed a problem: never found (in their final form) outside the body, are they an integral part of an organism or invaders? Why there is nothing in Genesis on them? After Darwin’s evolution theory took hold, parasites fared not much better: To Darwin, life was not a ladder rising up to the angels but a tree, bursting upward with all the diversity of the species on Earth alive today and long past, all rooted in a common ancestry. And parasites, instead of develop, actually lose developed functions. One influential voice for these ideas belonged to the British zoologist Ray Lankester, who wrote “Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism.”, where virulently attacked species that not only stopped rising but actually surrendered some of their accomplishments. They degenerated, their bodies simplifying as they accommodated themselves to an easier life. They were the sine qua non of degenerates, whether they were animals or single-celled protozoa that had given up a free life. This critic quickly spilled over to social activism, were everyone, from communists to Nazis started accusing their opponents of parasitism, a practice present even today.
However, parasites aren’t that simple. They manage to fool immune systems better than the best of our drugs. Blood-drinkers often keep their point of contact clean and inject anti-coagulants, but don’t let the whole body bleed. For each species there are estimated four species that parasitize on it, all extremely narrow specialists.
Many books on parasites stress the “Ew” factor, but not this one. It shows that there is a whole world often disregarded by ‘classical’ biologist. Say, usually wolf-moose relation is usually viewed as predators keeping a herd of prey healthy by weeding out the slowest ones. In truth, wolves are the final hosts for one of the smallest tapeworms in the world, Echinococcus granulosus. It doesn’t cause its final host much harm, but its eggs can be vastly vicious. They are eaten by herbivores such as moose, where they slowly transform themselves into cysts. One of the tapeworm’s favorite sites for forming its cyst is the lungs. As a result, when wolves sweep down on a herd of moose, they’re more likely to pick out the slow, wheezing one and kill it. The result is that the tapeworm brings the wolf to the moose so that it can get into the wolf. The thinning of the herd is an illusion, not the service of the predator but the side effect of a tapeworm traveling through its life.
Parasites are paramount part of the environment. To disregard them, assuming healthy elements in modelling the eco-system brings wrong results.
Also, there is a common sense that given time parasites might evolve into a new species better adapted to a new host. If they did, they would be amply rewarded by natural selection for any mutation that caused less harm to their new host. After all, if their host died off, the parasites would die with it. In truth, familarity could breed contempt. Natural selection favors genes that can get themselves replicated more often than others. Obviously, a gene that makes a parasite instantly fatal to its host won’t go very far in this world. Yet, a parasite that is too well mannered won’t have any more success. Because it takes almost nothing from its host, it won’t have enough energy to reproduce itself and will come to the same evolutionary dead end. The harshness with which a parasite treats its host—what biologists call virulence—contains a trade-off.
A great eye opener!
This is a non-fic that can change your world picture. When I started it, I expected more or less average run of the mill collection of stories about parasites. However, this is so much more!
The book starts with initial theories of parasites: people observed them thru the centuries but they posed a problem: never found (in their final form) outside the body, are they an integral part of an organism or invaders? Why there is nothing in Genesis on them? After Darwin’s evolution theory took hold, parasites fared not much better: To Darwin, life was not a ladder rising up to the angels but a tree, bursting upward with all the diversity of the species on Earth alive today and long past, all rooted in a common ancestry. And parasites, instead of develop, actually lose developed functions. One influential voice for these ideas belonged to the British zoologist Ray Lankester, who wrote “Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism.”, where virulently attacked species that not only stopped rising but actually surrendered some of their accomplishments. They degenerated, their bodies simplifying as they accommodated themselves to an easier life. They were the sine qua non of degenerates, whether they were animals or single-celled protozoa that had given up a free life. This critic quickly spilled over to social activism, were everyone, from communists to Nazis started accusing their opponents of parasitism, a practice present even today.
However, parasites aren’t that simple. They manage to fool immune systems better than the best of our drugs. Blood-drinkers often keep their point of contact clean and inject anti-coagulants, but don’t let the whole body bleed. For each species there are estimated four species that parasitize on it, all extremely narrow specialists.
Many books on parasites stress the “Ew” factor, but not this one. It shows that there is a whole world often disregarded by ‘classical’ biologist. Say, usually wolf-moose relation is usually viewed as predators keeping a herd of prey healthy by weeding out the slowest ones. In truth, wolves are the final hosts for one of the smallest tapeworms in the world, Echinococcus granulosus. It doesn’t cause its final host much harm, but its eggs can be vastly vicious. They are eaten by herbivores such as moose, where they slowly transform themselves into cysts. One of the tapeworm’s favorite sites for forming its cyst is the lungs. As a result, when wolves sweep down on a herd of moose, they’re more likely to pick out the slow, wheezing one and kill it. The result is that the tapeworm brings the wolf to the moose so that it can get into the wolf. The thinning of the herd is an illusion, not the service of the predator but the side effect of a tapeworm traveling through its life.
Parasites are paramount part of the environment. To disregard them, assuming healthy elements in modelling the eco-system brings wrong results.
Also, there is a common sense that given time parasites might evolve into a new species better adapted to a new host. If they did, they would be amply rewarded by natural selection for any mutation that caused less harm to their new host. After all, if their host died off, the parasites would die with it. In truth, familarity could breed contempt. Natural selection favors genes that can get themselves replicated more often than others. Obviously, a gene that makes a parasite instantly fatal to its host won’t go very far in this world. Yet, a parasite that is too well mannered won’t have any more success. Because it takes almost nothing from its host, it won’t have enough energy to reproduce itself and will come to the same evolutionary dead end. The harshness with which a parasite treats its host—what biologists call virulence—contains a trade-off.
A great eye opener!
January 23, 2024
I know. I'm weird. But really, this is something that anyone could pick up and read and understand. Again, if you've ever thought about going vegetarian, this book will make you do it. It's basically a collection of case studies of parasites, how they work, what exactly they do, how they evolved, but it's all put together in an easy to read narrative so that you really don't feel like you're reading a text book (which you aren't - some of the descriptions imply that one celled parasitic organisms are capable conscious choice, false, but the idea of what's happening comes across easier).
December 7, 2023
3,5/5
Większość „szokujących” informacji poznałam już wcześniej, więc momentami łapała mnie nuda, ale i tak dobrze się bawiłam.
Większość „szokujących” informacji poznałam już wcześniej, więc momentami łapała mnie nuda, ale i tak dobrze się bawiłam.
February 5, 2008
One of the best non-fiction books I've read in years. I could not put it down. At a party recently, I found myself surrounded by PhD level marine biologists who were hanging on my every word as I described some of the parasites listed in the book. My favorite is the one that eats the tongue of a fish and then positions itself in the fish's mouth as a replacement tongue, only taking whatever food it needs and then helping the fish to swallow the rest to keep it alive. Some of the parasites have only been described and understood in the last 5-6 years, and yet this class of organism makes up a significant fraction of the Earth's biosphere. The author takes the reader through their evolution, biology, and ecology in an engaging, easy to read and digest form.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
February 7, 2018
Ive always loved being creeped out, and I gravitate to things/animals that most people find revolting - I've had pet spiders in the past and I currently have two snakes (Julius Squeezer and Aphrobitey).
So, naturally a book dedicated to parasites was something I wanted to pick up.
It was surprisingly narrative, and he told several stories of his life, some of which pulled on your heart strings. The book opens with a story when he was visiting a hospital full of kids suffering from "sleeping sickness" which can be fatal, and causes extreme duress.
Sleeping sickness is caused by the Tsetse fly which drinks your blood and can leave you infested Trypanosomes. Once the infection reaches your brain the situation becomes desperate - one of the few medicines that will work is 20% arsenic, and its so potent it eats through standard IV tubes, and specialized teflon tubes have to be ordered. The treatment is painful and some patients have to be strapped to their beds.
The book goes into a menagerie of horrors. Theres something called Onchocerca Volvulus aka River Blindess that not only causes you to go blind, but once the worms get into your skin (so mosquitos can get infected and in turn infect others) - people have been known to scratch themselves to death! Fuck.
Up to 60% of certain tribes living along the river over the age of 40 have gone blind.
Here's a sentence I didnt like reading, "Most human beings have one or more parasites living on them or in them. 1.4 billion people have roundworm. 1 billion have whipworm. 1/3 Europeans are infected with Toxoplasma Gondii which main host is a cat." Fuck, I have a cat. *glares at Pokey*
Back before we understood what parasites were, scientists and doctors didnt even recognize them as animals, they actually thought that parasites spontaneously arose in the human body as a symptom of an illness, not the cause of the illness itself. The logic being that was that internal organs aren't exposed to animals or external causes of illness, so how could these things possibly get inside the heart, liver or lungs? They must be byproducts of the body!
A particularily brutal experiment was carried out in Germany (not hitler), where a scientist involuntarily infected convicted inmates with parasites, feeding them meat known to be infected without telling them. After their execution they were dissected and found to have parasites, thus proving that you can contract parasites through digestion, and they werent a byproduct of illness made from the body. Eureka!
Trichinella is a type of worm that you initially ingest through food (mostly). Once the worm infects a cell it divides into a multicelled worm and bursts through the gut wall and into the capilliary system. From there it imbeds itself into the muscle tissue of the host, and turns the surrounding tissue into a softer jelly like substance effectively turning the muscle tissue into a parasite placenta. Revolting. You could theoretically have hundreds of these cysts in your muscle tissue before you start feeling the symptoms. They can even get into your brain.
Trichinella is most commonly found in pork products and this is the strongest case against bacon Ive heard.
OH DEAR GOD THERE ARE PICTURES. A BOT FLY LAID EGGS ON A BOYS HEAD. IT BURROWED THROUGH HIS SKULL AND INTO HIS BRAIN. IT KILLED HIM BY EATING A HUGE PORTION OF HIS BRAIN. WHY AM I STILL LOOKING AT THIS?!
Parasites eluded study for a long time not just because the majority are extremely small - but also because of their highly complex life cycles, often requiring 2 or more hosts of different species to complete its cycle. Its not uncommon for a parasite to travel through half a dozen hosts through its life cycle, and often during this life cycle its physical appearance changes. It's taken decades of research to match adult stage parasites with their larval counterparts.
Along with the different kinds of human parasites this book touches on a ton of different types of animal and plant parasites. I dont know if I wanted to know there are 5 thousand species of tapeworms, but I do now. I also now know that they don't have any mouths or guts. They absorb their food exclusivly through their skin, which is why they are so flat - maximizing surface area.... they can also grow over 80 ft long. To put that in perspective, thats several school busses long.
While many parasites actually do a good job at not killing the host, and just causing minor inconviences... or castration and mind control.... the battle between catepillars and wasps is brutal and lethal. The pictures included made me squirm. It doesnt help that the author is decent at creating visuals, "she jabs a long hollow dagger through one of the holes, and through it squirts hundreds of eggs". I think hes doing this on purpose.
This is a very well written book, full of details and experiences the author has gone through. Hes traveled the world from the Amazon, to Africa and both sides of the USA studying parasites and their life cycles.
No background in science is required, this is easily accessible to the general public with very little jargon.
So, naturally a book dedicated to parasites was something I wanted to pick up.
It was surprisingly narrative, and he told several stories of his life, some of which pulled on your heart strings. The book opens with a story when he was visiting a hospital full of kids suffering from "sleeping sickness" which can be fatal, and causes extreme duress.
Sleeping sickness is caused by the Tsetse fly which drinks your blood and can leave you infested Trypanosomes. Once the infection reaches your brain the situation becomes desperate - one of the few medicines that will work is 20% arsenic, and its so potent it eats through standard IV tubes, and specialized teflon tubes have to be ordered. The treatment is painful and some patients have to be strapped to their beds.
The book goes into a menagerie of horrors. Theres something called Onchocerca Volvulus aka River Blindess that not only causes you to go blind, but once the worms get into your skin (so mosquitos can get infected and in turn infect others) - people have been known to scratch themselves to death! Fuck.
Up to 60% of certain tribes living along the river over the age of 40 have gone blind.
Here's a sentence I didnt like reading, "Most human beings have one or more parasites living on them or in them. 1.4 billion people have roundworm. 1 billion have whipworm. 1/3 Europeans are infected with Toxoplasma Gondii which main host is a cat." Fuck, I have a cat. *glares at Pokey*
Back before we understood what parasites were, scientists and doctors didnt even recognize them as animals, they actually thought that parasites spontaneously arose in the human body as a symptom of an illness, not the cause of the illness itself. The logic being that was that internal organs aren't exposed to animals or external causes of illness, so how could these things possibly get inside the heart, liver or lungs? They must be byproducts of the body!
A particularily brutal experiment was carried out in Germany (not hitler), where a scientist involuntarily infected convicted inmates with parasites, feeding them meat known to be infected without telling them. After their execution they were dissected and found to have parasites, thus proving that you can contract parasites through digestion, and they werent a byproduct of illness made from the body. Eureka!
Trichinella is a type of worm that you initially ingest through food (mostly). Once the worm infects a cell it divides into a multicelled worm and bursts through the gut wall and into the capilliary system. From there it imbeds itself into the muscle tissue of the host, and turns the surrounding tissue into a softer jelly like substance effectively turning the muscle tissue into a parasite placenta. Revolting. You could theoretically have hundreds of these cysts in your muscle tissue before you start feeling the symptoms. They can even get into your brain.
Trichinella is most commonly found in pork products and this is the strongest case against bacon Ive heard.
OH DEAR GOD THERE ARE PICTURES. A BOT FLY LAID EGGS ON A BOYS HEAD. IT BURROWED THROUGH HIS SKULL AND INTO HIS BRAIN. IT KILLED HIM BY EATING A HUGE PORTION OF HIS BRAIN. WHY AM I STILL LOOKING AT THIS?!
Parasites eluded study for a long time not just because the majority are extremely small - but also because of their highly complex life cycles, often requiring 2 or more hosts of different species to complete its cycle. Its not uncommon for a parasite to travel through half a dozen hosts through its life cycle, and often during this life cycle its physical appearance changes. It's taken decades of research to match adult stage parasites with their larval counterparts.
Along with the different kinds of human parasites this book touches on a ton of different types of animal and plant parasites. I dont know if I wanted to know there are 5 thousand species of tapeworms, but I do now. I also now know that they don't have any mouths or guts. They absorb their food exclusivly through their skin, which is why they are so flat - maximizing surface area.... they can also grow over 80 ft long. To put that in perspective, thats several school busses long.
While many parasites actually do a good job at not killing the host, and just causing minor inconviences... or castration and mind control.... the battle between catepillars and wasps is brutal and lethal. The pictures included made me squirm. It doesnt help that the author is decent at creating visuals, "she jabs a long hollow dagger through one of the holes, and through it squirts hundreds of eggs". I think hes doing this on purpose.
This is a very well written book, full of details and experiences the author has gone through. Hes traveled the world from the Amazon, to Africa and both sides of the USA studying parasites and their life cycles.
No background in science is required, this is easily accessible to the general public with very little jargon.
March 31, 2024
This is a really fun book. I learned so much! Who knew parasites could be so interesting? 4.3 stars
November 6, 2020
This was a fantastic read. Plight of the Living Dead: What Real-Life Zombies Reveal about Our World--And Ourselves was excellent & more fun. I gave it a 5 star review, but this one covers areas it missed & in a different way. It focused more on how parasites are a necessary part of the environment. In some ways, it reminded me of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life which I also gave a 5 star review. That also made the point that we evolved with & depend on them.
Prologue: A Vein Is a River - First sightings of the inner world We often mistake parasites for viral or bacterial infections. Since they're also eukaroytes, similar to our body cells, fighting them requires different measures & they've evolved to fool our natural defenses.
1 Nature’s Criminals - How parasites came to be hated by just about everyone The old idea that parasites are somehow lower forms of life, things that have devolved just to be mindless pests, is a hard one for me to shake. Zimmer tells the history of our view of them & why we need to see them in a different light. They're really amazing feats of evolution.
2 Terra Incognita - Swimming through the heart, fighting to the death inside a caterpillar, and other parasitic adventures describes some of the methods parasites use to hide themselves from the body's defenses.
3 The Thirty Years’ War - How parasites provoke, manipulate, and get intimate with our immune system
4 A Precise Horror - How parasites turn their hosts into castrated slaves, drink blood, and manage to change the balance of nature
5 The Great Step Inward - Four billion years in the reign of Parasite Rex
6 Evolution from Within - The peacock’s tail, the origin of species, and other battles against the rules of evolution
7 The Two-Legged Host - How Homo sapiens grew up with creatures inside
8 How to Live in a Parasitic World - A sick planet, and how the most newly arrived parasite can be part of a cure Parasites are a really good barometer of the health of an ecosystem.
Prologue: A Vein Is a River - First sightings of the inner world We often mistake parasites for viral or bacterial infections. Since they're also eukaroytes, similar to our body cells, fighting them requires different measures & they've evolved to fool our natural defenses.
1 Nature’s Criminals - How parasites came to be hated by just about everyone The old idea that parasites are somehow lower forms of life, things that have devolved just to be mindless pests, is a hard one for me to shake. Zimmer tells the history of our view of them & why we need to see them in a different light. They're really amazing feats of evolution.
2 Terra Incognita - Swimming through the heart, fighting to the death inside a caterpillar, and other parasitic adventures describes some of the methods parasites use to hide themselves from the body's defenses.
3 The Thirty Years’ War - How parasites provoke, manipulate, and get intimate with our immune system
4 A Precise Horror - How parasites turn their hosts into castrated slaves, drink blood, and manage to change the balance of nature
5 The Great Step Inward - Four billion years in the reign of Parasite Rex
6 Evolution from Within - The peacock’s tail, the origin of species, and other battles against the rules of evolution
7 The Two-Legged Host - How Homo sapiens grew up with creatures inside
8 How to Live in a Parasitic World - A sick planet, and how the most newly arrived parasite can be part of a cure Parasites are a really good barometer of the health of an ecosystem.
January 29, 2010
I love science; I love diseases; I love weird science. This book was essentially written for me, and has provided me with a way of starting the study of parasites. Yay!
If you don't like science, don't like gross things, and don't like thinking about what might already be living inside your body, this really isn't the book for you. It's just going to make you sad, and there are books that wouldn't make you sad (and which include less viscera).
If you don't like science, don't like gross things, and don't like thinking about what might already be living inside your body, this really isn't the book for you. It's just going to make you sad, and there are books that wouldn't make you sad (and which include less viscera).
August 27, 2019
Vārds parazīts cēlies no grieķu valodas. Sākumā tā nozīme bija pavisam necila, tā sauca cilvēkus, kas templī dzīru laikā pienesa ēdienus. Tikai vēlāk par parazītiem sāka saukt dažādus liekēžus un izmantot kā lamu vārdu. Tā arī dzīvajā dabā atrodamie parazīti ilgu laiku tapa nomelnoti. Bioloģijā pat līdz divdesmitā gadsimta sākumam valdīja uzskats, ka parazīti ir organismi, kas ieslēguši evolūciju atpakaļgaitā. Jeb parastu cilvēku valodā runājot – deģenerāti. Šis uzskats ilgu laiku bija populārs un, ja godīgi, neviens jau tos parazītus nemaz tā nepētīja.
Šo grāmatu autors acīmredzot sarakstījis ar nolūku, lai paceltu parazītu tēmu saulītē. Standarta discovery raidījumos parazīti vienmēr tiek attēloti no to sliktās puses. Skat, kā Gvinejas tārps izraisa elefantiāzi, liekot kāju pārvērsties bluķī. Var arī nodemonstrēt kādu atgadījumu, kur lentenis savā dzīves cikla sākumā nonāk nevis sunī, bet cilvēkā un izmisumā izveido cistu cilvēka smadzenēs. Var arī apstāstīt par Toxoplasma, mazu parazītiņu, kas dzīvo gandrīz mūsu katra smadzenēs, un ko tur slēpt, iespējams, atstāj ietekmi uz mūsu raksturu. Patiesība, protams, sevī ietver arī šo nepatīkamo daļu, nāvi no malārijas, vai bērna uztveres problēmas, kas saistītas ar cērmju invāziju, bet ir arī pāris citi aspekti, kas ir apskatīšanas vērti.
Piemēram, parazīta un saimnieka savstarpējās attiecības. Parazīta nozīme ekoloģijā. Parazīta nozīme mūsu imūnsistēmas kalibrēšanā. Parazīta dzīves un vairošanās cikls, adaptācija jaunām sugām. Kopumā visai interesanta grāmata par un pa parazītiem. Minēšu dažus faktus, kurus uzzināju pirmoreiz.
Izrādās, ka mūsdienās cilvēkiem šad tad piemetas retas kaites, kuru vienīgais izskaidrojums ir parazītu trūkums organismā. Ja tev labu laiku nav bijušas cērmes, tad tava organisma imūnsistēma var uzbrukt tavām zarnu sieniņām un iznīcināt to. Mūsdienās ir divas ārstēšanas metodes. Zarnas rezekcija vai parazītu ieviešana. Ja cērmēm un lenteņiem jāsadzīvo vienā zarnu traktā, lentenis ir zaudētājs un tiek nobīdīts tuvāk izejai.
Parazīts Toxoplasma visu laiku regulē savu klātbūtnes apjomu saimnieka organismā. Laiku pa laikam tas izraisa imūnsistēmas reakciju, kas ļauj izdzīvot tikai pāris sugas pārstāvjiem.
Vissarežģītākie parazīti ir lapseņu kāpuri. Dažu sugu lapseņu kāpuri pat pilnīgi pārņem kāpuru savā kontrolē. To nabagu apstrādā ar hormoniem, un viņš pirms savas nāves vēl nodarbojas ar lapseņu kāpuru kokonu apsargāšanu.
Dažs labs parazīts savus saimniekus apgādā ar opiātiem, lai šie ar savu neadekvāto uzvedību izprovocētu apēšanu. Citi savukārt liek skudrai katru vakaru uzrāpties zāles stiebra galā ar domu, ka to tur nejauši apēdīs kāds zālēdājs. Cits liek mušai pirms nāves atrast vislabāko vietu savu sporu izsēšanai. Muša pat pirms nāves ieņem pareizu leņķi, lai izkliede būtu perfekta.
Parazīts ir arī labs ekoloģijas barometrs. Ja tu noķer gliemezi un ierasto 9 parazītu sugu vietā redzi tikai astoņas, ir pamats uztraukties, ka kaut kur barības ķēdē ir reālas problēmas. Šad tad cilvēki apkaro kaitēkļus ar to parazītiem, tomēr ne vienmēr tas beidzas ar labiem rezultātiem.
Kopumā interesants skats uz parazītiem. Grāmatai dodu 10 no 10 ballēm. Ja gribi uzzināt malārijas vai lenteņa dzīves cikla nianses, tad šī grāmata būs laba lasāmviela.
Šo grāmatu autors acīmredzot sarakstījis ar nolūku, lai paceltu parazītu tēmu saulītē. Standarta discovery raidījumos parazīti vienmēr tiek attēloti no to sliktās puses. Skat, kā Gvinejas tārps izraisa elefantiāzi, liekot kāju pārvērsties bluķī. Var arī nodemonstrēt kādu atgadījumu, kur lentenis savā dzīves cikla sākumā nonāk nevis sunī, bet cilvēkā un izmisumā izveido cistu cilvēka smadzenēs. Var arī apstāstīt par Toxoplasma, mazu parazītiņu, kas dzīvo gandrīz mūsu katra smadzenēs, un ko tur slēpt, iespējams, atstāj ietekmi uz mūsu raksturu. Patiesība, protams, sevī ietver arī šo nepatīkamo daļu, nāvi no malārijas, vai bērna uztveres problēmas, kas saistītas ar cērmju invāziju, bet ir arī pāris citi aspekti, kas ir apskatīšanas vērti.
Piemēram, parazīta un saimnieka savstarpējās attiecības. Parazīta nozīme ekoloģijā. Parazīta nozīme mūsu imūnsistēmas kalibrēšanā. Parazīta dzīves un vairošanās cikls, adaptācija jaunām sugām. Kopumā visai interesanta grāmata par un pa parazītiem. Minēšu dažus faktus, kurus uzzināju pirmoreiz.
Izrādās, ka mūsdienās cilvēkiem šad tad piemetas retas kaites, kuru vienīgais izskaidrojums ir parazītu trūkums organismā. Ja tev labu laiku nav bijušas cērmes, tad tava organisma imūnsistēma var uzbrukt tavām zarnu sieniņām un iznīcināt to. Mūsdienās ir divas ārstēšanas metodes. Zarnas rezekcija vai parazītu ieviešana. Ja cērmēm un lenteņiem jāsadzīvo vienā zarnu traktā, lentenis ir zaudētājs un tiek nobīdīts tuvāk izejai.
Parazīts Toxoplasma visu laiku regulē savu klātbūtnes apjomu saimnieka organismā. Laiku pa laikam tas izraisa imūnsistēmas reakciju, kas ļauj izdzīvot tikai pāris sugas pārstāvjiem.
Vissarežģītākie parazīti ir lapseņu kāpuri. Dažu sugu lapseņu kāpuri pat pilnīgi pārņem kāpuru savā kontrolē. To nabagu apstrādā ar hormoniem, un viņš pirms savas nāves vēl nodarbojas ar lapseņu kāpuru kokonu apsargāšanu.
Dažs labs parazīts savus saimniekus apgādā ar opiātiem, lai šie ar savu neadekvāto uzvedību izprovocētu apēšanu. Citi savukārt liek skudrai katru vakaru uzrāpties zāles stiebra galā ar domu, ka to tur nejauši apēdīs kāds zālēdājs. Cits liek mušai pirms nāves atrast vislabāko vietu savu sporu izsēšanai. Muša pat pirms nāves ieņem pareizu leņķi, lai izkliede būtu perfekta.
Parazīts ir arī labs ekoloģijas barometrs. Ja tu noķer gliemezi un ierasto 9 parazītu sugu vietā redzi tikai astoņas, ir pamats uztraukties, ka kaut kur barības ķēdē ir reālas problēmas. Šad tad cilvēki apkaro kaitēkļus ar to parazītiem, tomēr ne vienmēr tas beidzas ar labiem rezultātiem.
Kopumā interesants skats uz parazītiem. Grāmatai dodu 10 no 10 ballēm. Ja gribi uzzināt malārijas vai lenteņa dzīves cikla nianses, tad šī grāmata būs laba lasāmviela.
March 8, 2023
Reseña en Español | Review in English
Un recorrido fascinante por el mundo de los parásitos y por la extraordinaria manera en que los seres vivos -incluidos estos pequeños organismos- se han adaptado para sobrevivir. Con frecuencia, asociamos a los parásitos con algo malo y sucio e incluso, en el léxico diario, usamos el término para definir a personas que viven a costa de otras, que existen con el mínimo esfuerzo. El autor señala que, de hecho, algunos miembros de la comunidad científica no tienen interés en los parásitos porque consideran que se han degradado de tal forma que hacen lo mínimo para sobrevivir -básicamente introduciéndose en un hospedador del cual se alimentarán y controlarán para reproducirse y seguir su ciclo de vida. Sin embargo, este libro demuestra la complejidad de estos seres que sí, efectivamente viven a través de otros, pero que han logrado el camuflaje su ADN de tal forma que el sistema inmunológico no puede reconocerlos y que son capaces de debilitar las funciones y la voluntad de sus hospedadores para su propio beneficio. Parecería una película de ciencia ficción, en donde unos entes fuera de este mundo empiezan a controlar todos los aspectos de la vida de un ser vivo, pero la realidad es que esto ya existe en nuestro planeta y nuestros ecosistemas, y los parásitos lo hacen durante toda su existencia. En particular aprendí muchísimo de este fascinante mundo y sobre todo, resuena en mí la importancia de valorar todo lo que existe en nuestro planeta, lo cual siempre tiene una razón de ser. Modificar un ecosistema tiene un impacto brutal en todos los seres vivos, de los cuales la humanidad es parte. Y si bien no todos los parásitos son benignos, pues algunos constituyen serias amenazas de salud pública, lo cierto es que son parte del balance de la naturaleza en nuestro planeta. Perderlos implicaría un cambio en detrimento de nosotros mismos (y en este punto, sigo impactada entre la potencial relación entre la desaparición de ciertos parásitos y el aumento de las alergias o condiciones como la colitis).
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A fascinating journey through the world of parasites and the extraordinary way in which living things -including these small organisms- have adapted to survive. Very often we associate parasites with something bad and dirty and we use the term to define people who live at the expense of others and who pass by with minimal effort. The author points out that even some members of the scientific community have no interest in parasites because they consider they have degraded in such a way that they do the minimum to survive -basically entering a host from which they will feed and then control to reproduce and continue their life cycle. However, this book demonstrates the complexity of these organisms who do indeed live through others but who have managed to camouflage their DNA in such a way that the immune system cannot recognize them and hence, can weaken both the system and the will of their hosts. It would seem like a science fiction movie, where entities out of this world begin to control all aspects of life from living things, except this is a reality on our planet and our ecosystems, and parasites are champions in this way of living. I learned a lot from this fascinating world and was reminded of the importance of valuing every living form on our planet, which exists for a reason. Modifying an ecosystem has a brutal impact on all living things of which we humans are part of. And although not all parasites are benign, as some constitute serious threats to public health, the truth is they are part of the balance of nature in our world. Losing them would imply a change against us in ways we can hardly imagine -for example, I was shocked by the potential relationship between the disappearance of certain parasites and the increase in allergies or conditions such as colitis, among others.
Un recorrido fascinante por el mundo de los parásitos y por la extraordinaria manera en que los seres vivos -incluidos estos pequeños organismos- se han adaptado para sobrevivir. Con frecuencia, asociamos a los parásitos con algo malo y sucio e incluso, en el léxico diario, usamos el término para definir a personas que viven a costa de otras, que existen con el mínimo esfuerzo. El autor señala que, de hecho, algunos miembros de la comunidad científica no tienen interés en los parásitos porque consideran que se han degradado de tal forma que hacen lo mínimo para sobrevivir -básicamente introduciéndose en un hospedador del cual se alimentarán y controlarán para reproducirse y seguir su ciclo de vida. Sin embargo, este libro demuestra la complejidad de estos seres que sí, efectivamente viven a través de otros, pero que han logrado el camuflaje su ADN de tal forma que el sistema inmunológico no puede reconocerlos y que son capaces de debilitar las funciones y la voluntad de sus hospedadores para su propio beneficio. Parecería una película de ciencia ficción, en donde unos entes fuera de este mundo empiezan a controlar todos los aspectos de la vida de un ser vivo, pero la realidad es que esto ya existe en nuestro planeta y nuestros ecosistemas, y los parásitos lo hacen durante toda su existencia. En particular aprendí muchísimo de este fascinante mundo y sobre todo, resuena en mí la importancia de valorar todo lo que existe en nuestro planeta, lo cual siempre tiene una razón de ser. Modificar un ecosistema tiene un impacto brutal en todos los seres vivos, de los cuales la humanidad es parte. Y si bien no todos los parásitos son benignos, pues algunos constituyen serias amenazas de salud pública, lo cierto es que son parte del balance de la naturaleza en nuestro planeta. Perderlos implicaría un cambio en detrimento de nosotros mismos (y en este punto, sigo impactada entre la potencial relación entre la desaparición de ciertos parásitos y el aumento de las alergias o condiciones como la colitis).
____
A fascinating journey through the world of parasites and the extraordinary way in which living things -including these small organisms- have adapted to survive. Very often we associate parasites with something bad and dirty and we use the term to define people who live at the expense of others and who pass by with minimal effort. The author points out that even some members of the scientific community have no interest in parasites because they consider they have degraded in such a way that they do the minimum to survive -basically entering a host from which they will feed and then control to reproduce and continue their life cycle. However, this book demonstrates the complexity of these organisms who do indeed live through others but who have managed to camouflage their DNA in such a way that the immune system cannot recognize them and hence, can weaken both the system and the will of their hosts. It would seem like a science fiction movie, where entities out of this world begin to control all aspects of life from living things, except this is a reality on our planet and our ecosystems, and parasites are champions in this way of living. I learned a lot from this fascinating world and was reminded of the importance of valuing every living form on our planet, which exists for a reason. Modifying an ecosystem has a brutal impact on all living things of which we humans are part of. And although not all parasites are benign, as some constitute serious threats to public health, the truth is they are part of the balance of nature in our world. Losing them would imply a change against us in ways we can hardly imagine -for example, I was shocked by the potential relationship between the disappearance of certain parasites and the increase in allergies or conditions such as colitis, among others.
November 18, 2018
Parasites amount to the majority in all species but are much less known than freestanding species are. This book, packed with information, helps reduce the ignorance by a large degree. Many revealed mysteries are truly amazing. One might say, "These disgusting creatures are actually so 'smart'!"
Here is an example: a parasitic wasp, Cotesia congregata, lays eggs in the tobacco hornworms. To help her children fight the immune system of the host, which would otherwise mummify them, she delivers the eggs packaged with viruses, which, like in AIDS, will control the host DNA to produce proteins that destroy the immune system. This package is already amazing, but where does the wasp get the viruses? Nowhere other than her own DNA! There are pieces of genes scattered, but only in the female adult wasp, and only in certain cells of the ovary, these pieces are cut out of the DNA and sewn together as awakened viral DNA and reproduced with protein shells, to ship out with the eggs. Mind-boggling!
Some other miracles are: worms “telling” their host fly where, when, and how to die so that they can propagate most effectively, or controlling host mice to increase the chance to meet cats so that they can migrate to the latter, similarly even host humans are influenced to behave more dangerously to themselves, although not to the degree of throwing themselves to the lions…
An excellent book for any curious reader.
Here is an example: a parasitic wasp, Cotesia congregata, lays eggs in the tobacco hornworms. To help her children fight the immune system of the host, which would otherwise mummify them, she delivers the eggs packaged with viruses, which, like in AIDS, will control the host DNA to produce proteins that destroy the immune system. This package is already amazing, but where does the wasp get the viruses? Nowhere other than her own DNA! There are pieces of genes scattered, but only in the female adult wasp, and only in certain cells of the ovary, these pieces are cut out of the DNA and sewn together as awakened viral DNA and reproduced with protein shells, to ship out with the eggs. Mind-boggling!
Some other miracles are: worms “telling” their host fly where, when, and how to die so that they can propagate most effectively, or controlling host mice to increase the chance to meet cats so that they can migrate to the latter, similarly even host humans are influenced to behave more dangerously to themselves, although not to the degree of throwing themselves to the lions…
An excellent book for any curious reader.
October 7, 2014
An organism (human or otherwise) that tends to live off another is what we refer to in simple terms as a parasite. It is a name which has been subjected to scathing criticism and/or rib tickling humor according to circumstances when it does pop up. But keeping these light hearted anecdotes aside how much would it affect you if science were to tell you that there is a parasite that can castrate you ? Yet another can convert your gender as it begins colonizing you ? These are topics typically left to the sci-fi authors or to the horror genre but Carl Zimmer in this thought provoking book tells us that such creatures do exist in nature. There are even more shudder inducing characters at play in nature whose behavior makes us rethink the plots of Jack Finney or Robert Heinlein and their body snatcher tales.
Parasite Rex is an in-depth view of the life and times of the parasite. The narrative does not restrict itself to parasites that plague humans alone but to those that are rampant in nature with regards to other flora and fauna. The initial set of chapters are extremely high on the 'yuck' factor. But then as we are talking about creatures that inhabit the most undreamed of places, the details tend to get a little icky. To put it mildly, the initial parts are nothing short of a gorefest in terms of the graphic details.
If you peel away these layers of aversion then beneath it all you get to observe one of nature's finest survivors. It is a creature that began its existence even before the first life form walked on Earth. A creature that has withstood climate changes, natural and man made disasters and cutting edge medical developments. In all probability they will still be alive when we are long gone from this planet. An extremely hardy survivor and a tough opponent to best ! Zimmer also explains with proven examples why it is equally important to have parasites if nature is to maintain a healthy balance in the system. I felt my incredulity and disgust make way for a grudging respect to this organism by the time the book was done and that is a mark of a very good book !
Carl Zimmer's prose is simple, direct and distilled down to the very basic elements which do a world of difference in terms of understanding the subject at hand. He avoids jargon even when talking about complex topics like immunology or parasitology. A convincing case indeed for one of nature's most overlooked set of organisms !
Recommended.
Parasite Rex is an in-depth view of the life and times of the parasite. The narrative does not restrict itself to parasites that plague humans alone but to those that are rampant in nature with regards to other flora and fauna. The initial set of chapters are extremely high on the 'yuck' factor. But then as we are talking about creatures that inhabit the most undreamed of places, the details tend to get a little icky. To put it mildly, the initial parts are nothing short of a gorefest in terms of the graphic details.
If you peel away these layers of aversion then beneath it all you get to observe one of nature's finest survivors. It is a creature that began its existence even before the first life form walked on Earth. A creature that has withstood climate changes, natural and man made disasters and cutting edge medical developments. In all probability they will still be alive when we are long gone from this planet. An extremely hardy survivor and a tough opponent to best ! Zimmer also explains with proven examples why it is equally important to have parasites if nature is to maintain a healthy balance in the system. I felt my incredulity and disgust make way for a grudging respect to this organism by the time the book was done and that is a mark of a very good book !
Carl Zimmer's prose is simple, direct and distilled down to the very basic elements which do a world of difference in terms of understanding the subject at hand. He avoids jargon even when talking about complex topics like immunology or parasitology. A convincing case indeed for one of nature's most overlooked set of organisms !
Recommended.
January 12, 2015
Sometimes the truth is stranger (and creepier) than fiction. Its certainly the case with parasites. Just thinking about having another creature living inside of me makes me feel a bit squidgee, but that's the way that humanity evolved. Those of us with good medical attention and cleanly living accommodations are very lucky. Yet another reason to be thankful that I won the lottery and was born in North America. One interesting theory, which only gets 2 or 3 pages, is that our autoimmune diseases are a result of being parasite-free. The thought is that our bodies evolved in concert with intestinal worms and the worms held the secret to calming down our immune systems. Zimmer claims that Krohn's and colitis don't occur in societies where there is a high rate of intestinal parasites. Even allergies, apparently, are the immune system's over-reaction and are much less likely to occur in parasite-carrying people. This calls for some research--I'm sure I heard something about this on CBC Radio as well (people infecting themselves with certain parasites to obtain relief from autoimmune diseases). Creepy or not, this kind of treatment may be in our future.
June 4, 2017
You will be stunned, I'm sure! This great piece of work will change your view on, well, virtually everything.
Parasitism is a complex and prevailing life form on Earth. Before reading this book, I used to think of parasites as simple, passive, useless and even harmful creatures. Carl Zimmer pointed out that I was totally wrong about them. To start with, parasites are not simple. In fact, their life cycles are very complicated, circulating through different hosts and changing their appearances and functions accordingly. Second, they are not passive. To be able to enjoy life inside another organism, parasites need to cheat the host's immune system, find a good place to mature and lay eggs, and they can even somehow control the host to do them some favors.
The book is a summary of tens of years of parasitology research. Each piece of information is the result of many years of hard work. I was impressed by the way the author combined those discoveries together into elegant stories: how malaria attacks and spreads, how Toxoplasma makes infected rats to be easy targets to cats, how chimpanzees free themselves from worms, history of parasites and how it relates to that of free-living animals, etc.
The last one third of the book is dedicated to emphasizing the role of parasites in evolution, society and ecosystem. Although not so exciting and shocking as previous parts, this part depicts an overall picture of parasitism. Parasites are not supposed to cause troubles but they really play essential roles in shaping the Tree of Life, animals' behaviors and help to balance the ecosystem. Without understanding parasites, humans had made big mistakes by eradicating crucial parasites or bringing alien parasites to new lands.
This book is a somewhat scary but beautiful story about parasitism.
Parasitism is a complex and prevailing life form on Earth. Before reading this book, I used to think of parasites as simple, passive, useless and even harmful creatures. Carl Zimmer pointed out that I was totally wrong about them. To start with, parasites are not simple. In fact, their life cycles are very complicated, circulating through different hosts and changing their appearances and functions accordingly. Second, they are not passive. To be able to enjoy life inside another organism, parasites need to cheat the host's immune system, find a good place to mature and lay eggs, and they can even somehow control the host to do them some favors.
The book is a summary of tens of years of parasitology research. Each piece of information is the result of many years of hard work. I was impressed by the way the author combined those discoveries together into elegant stories: how malaria attacks and spreads, how Toxoplasma makes infected rats to be easy targets to cats, how chimpanzees free themselves from worms, history of parasites and how it relates to that of free-living animals, etc.
The last one third of the book is dedicated to emphasizing the role of parasites in evolution, society and ecosystem. Although not so exciting and shocking as previous parts, this part depicts an overall picture of parasitism. Parasites are not supposed to cause troubles but they really play essential roles in shaping the Tree of Life, animals' behaviors and help to balance the ecosystem. Without understanding parasites, humans had made big mistakes by eradicating crucial parasites or bringing alien parasites to new lands.
This book is a somewhat scary but beautiful story about parasitism.
October 6, 2009
"The wise learn many things from their enemies." This quote by Aristophanes used in the book summarizes why you should read it. Parasites are so adept at hiding, changing and defending themselves that there are no vaccines that work against them. They are also incredibly ferocious-looking under a microscope with horns and fangs and barbs of all shapes. I found this book fascinating in the way it followed these little guys around. They go through multiple metamorphoses and follow quite a complicated path from egg to adult. I also learned a lot about the human immune system as it tries and fails in the fight against these pests. I loved the ending which in a few pages summed up everything poignantly. I highly recommend this book. If you don't want to read it, then go listen to Radio Lab's fascinating story called Parasites of three points made in the book which aired Sep 25, 2009. You won't regret it! http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ep...
February 24, 2021
This book is awesome. I'm going to write more later when I'm not drinking an imperial stout.
Parasites are so fucking cool.
Parasites are so fucking cool.
November 3, 2021
I thought I'd a reasonable handle on the living world, then along came this fabulous book. MIND BLOWN! My thanks to Carl Zimmer and all who research parasites because this is far more than the big jar of preserved tapeworm at the back of the biology lab. This is an indepth, readable (utterly fascinating) look at what may be the largest and most influential part of life on this planet.
And, not going to lie, as an SF writer--so many more options!
And, not going to lie, as an SF writer--so many more options!
September 10, 2016
It's been a while since I have abandoned the star-awarding principle I first devised upon joining the Goodreads. I wanted to give the highest mark to if not a life-changing but at least to an eye-opening or mindset-shifting book. I knew some at the moment and counted on meeting more soon. However that was not a case. Such encounters are few and far between. Thus i revised my policy and started awarding 5 stars to very good books I enjoyed, but which otherwise didn't shake me to the core.
This time I'm happy to declare that in this book I met a genuine 5 star tome. My views on biology, evolution, life on Earth and its purpose are given quite a stir. I won't disclose much of book's content, but just a quick remark/guess: the author talks about parasites and domesticated animals, but he barely mentions our regular pets - cats and dogs - in this context. And not for nothing, I think...otherwise some people would have started looking at them with very, very different eyes :)
This time I'm happy to declare that in this book I met a genuine 5 star tome. My views on biology, evolution, life on Earth and its purpose are given quite a stir. I won't disclose much of book's content, but just a quick remark/guess: the author talks about parasites and domesticated animals, but he barely mentions our regular pets - cats and dogs - in this context. And not for nothing, I think...otherwise some people would have started looking at them with very, very different eyes :)
July 11, 2009
Awesomely disgusting. Fun read, not particularly difficult. Make some important points.
Parasites might have been the defining factor in the direction evolution took us.
One cool thing was the idea of cyclic generations. Instead of each generation being the same as the previous they would cycle through three or four different "creatures" before returning to the start. Weird.
Another cool idea. Speciation through parasitation. There's your divided environment.
Quotes:
"The problem comes down to the fact that scientists at the beginning of this century thought they had everything figured our. They knew how diseases were caused and how to treat some of them; they knew how life evolved. They didn't respect the depth of their ignorance."
"For six years he floated in this dead-end existence, but he found that it game him the freedom to search for answers that other scientists thought were unreachable. "I had nothing to lose," Sukhdeo says. "I could do anything I wanted, and I had no future.""
"Unable to waste energy on building eggs or testes, on finding a mate, or on raising young, a host becomes, genetically speaking, a zombie: one of the undead serving a master."
"Lafferty set his student Kimo Morris to establish whether or not the flukes affected the killifish. Lafferty gathered up forty-two fish, brought them into the lab, and dumped them into a seventy-five-gallon aquarium. Morris gazed at the fish for days. He would pick out one and stare at it for half an hour, recording every move it made. When he was done, he'd scoop the fish out and dissect it to see whether its brain was caked with parasites or not. And then he'd meditate on another killifish."
"But why would birds pick so many sick fish when they were virtually guaranteeing themselves an intestinal parasite? The flukes do take a toll on the birds, but a relatively small one. It's in the parasite's interest, after all, for the bird to be healthy enough to fly, so that it can carry the fluke to other salt marshes that it can colonize. If the bird scrupulously avoided infected killifish, it might stay healthy, but it would also go hungry. The parasites make so much food available to it that their benefits far outweigh their costs."
"The harshness with which a parasite treats its host - what biologists cal virulence - contains a trade-off. On one hand, the parasite wants to make use of as much of its host as possible, but on the other hand, it wants its host to stay alive. The balancing point between these conflicts is the optimal virulence for a parasite. And often, that optimal virulence is quite vicious."
"The males and females make copies of their genes and join them together to from their offspring's DNA, and as the genes combine, they get shuffled around. As a result, the offspring isn't a carbon copy of one of its parents but a new jumble of tier genes. Now the parasites have a much harder time chasing their hosts. Because the genes of the sexual amoebae mix, they no longer come in distinct strains, and it because harder for parasites to get lock on them. The Red Queen still takes sexual organisms for an endless run, but their offspring may have less of a chance of getting infected."
"It's now becoming clear that parasites may have pushed their hosts to become more diverse as well. Parasites don't attack an entire species in the same way. The parasites in a particular region can specialize on that population of hosts, adapting to that local set of host genes. The hosts evolve in response - but only the hosts in that region, not the species as a whole. This local struggle has produced some of the fasted cases of evolution ever documented - whether they be yucca moths and the flower where they lay their eggs, snails and their flukes, or flax and fungi. And as these populations of hosts fight off their dedicated parasites, they become genetically distinct from the rest of their species."
"Wolbachia genetically isolates the infected host from the uninfected ones. A newly born host will be the offspring of either Wolbachia-carrying parents or two healthy ones. It won't be a healthy-unhealthy hybrid. By setting up this reproductive wall, the parasite may be able to set the stage for a new species to form."
Parasites might have been the defining factor in the direction evolution took us.
One cool thing was the idea of cyclic generations. Instead of each generation being the same as the previous they would cycle through three or four different "creatures" before returning to the start. Weird.
Another cool idea. Speciation through parasitation. There's your divided environment.
Quotes:
"The problem comes down to the fact that scientists at the beginning of this century thought they had everything figured our. They knew how diseases were caused and how to treat some of them; they knew how life evolved. They didn't respect the depth of their ignorance."
"For six years he floated in this dead-end existence, but he found that it game him the freedom to search for answers that other scientists thought were unreachable. "I had nothing to lose," Sukhdeo says. "I could do anything I wanted, and I had no future.""
"Unable to waste energy on building eggs or testes, on finding a mate, or on raising young, a host becomes, genetically speaking, a zombie: one of the undead serving a master."
"Lafferty set his student Kimo Morris to establish whether or not the flukes affected the killifish. Lafferty gathered up forty-two fish, brought them into the lab, and dumped them into a seventy-five-gallon aquarium. Morris gazed at the fish for days. He would pick out one and stare at it for half an hour, recording every move it made. When he was done, he'd scoop the fish out and dissect it to see whether its brain was caked with parasites or not. And then he'd meditate on another killifish."
"But why would birds pick so many sick fish when they were virtually guaranteeing themselves an intestinal parasite? The flukes do take a toll on the birds, but a relatively small one. It's in the parasite's interest, after all, for the bird to be healthy enough to fly, so that it can carry the fluke to other salt marshes that it can colonize. If the bird scrupulously avoided infected killifish, it might stay healthy, but it would also go hungry. The parasites make so much food available to it that their benefits far outweigh their costs."
"The harshness with which a parasite treats its host - what biologists cal virulence - contains a trade-off. On one hand, the parasite wants to make use of as much of its host as possible, but on the other hand, it wants its host to stay alive. The balancing point between these conflicts is the optimal virulence for a parasite. And often, that optimal virulence is quite vicious."
"The males and females make copies of their genes and join them together to from their offspring's DNA, and as the genes combine, they get shuffled around. As a result, the offspring isn't a carbon copy of one of its parents but a new jumble of tier genes. Now the parasites have a much harder time chasing their hosts. Because the genes of the sexual amoebae mix, they no longer come in distinct strains, and it because harder for parasites to get lock on them. The Red Queen still takes sexual organisms for an endless run, but their offspring may have less of a chance of getting infected."
"It's now becoming clear that parasites may have pushed their hosts to become more diverse as well. Parasites don't attack an entire species in the same way. The parasites in a particular region can specialize on that population of hosts, adapting to that local set of host genes. The hosts evolve in response - but only the hosts in that region, not the species as a whole. This local struggle has produced some of the fasted cases of evolution ever documented - whether they be yucca moths and the flower where they lay their eggs, snails and their flukes, or flax and fungi. And as these populations of hosts fight off their dedicated parasites, they become genetically distinct from the rest of their species."
"Wolbachia genetically isolates the infected host from the uninfected ones. A newly born host will be the offspring of either Wolbachia-carrying parents or two healthy ones. It won't be a healthy-unhealthy hybrid. By setting up this reproductive wall, the parasite may be able to set the stage for a new species to form."
January 27, 2011
I don't know why, but I find parasites interesting. However, I wasn't exactly looking for a book on this particular subject; rather I merely stumbled upon it. When I go to the book store I typically peruse my favorite sections, one of which is science. On the shelf I came across the title "Parasite Rex"... so I picked it up "King Parasite...huh." Then I made the mistake of reading the back of the book and found out what it was about. I had to buy this book immediately!
I'm always reading, so I had to finish up a couple other books before I could start reading this one, so I waited patiently in eager anticipation. I'll usually read two or three books at a time, and when I finally got freed up, I started this book. I didn't read another book until I finished this. It is one of the most engrossing scientific books I have in my collection. Carl Zimmer is actually a phenomenal writer. I'm not a scientist, but I enjoy reading about it and it's written in a manner just about anyone should be able to understand. It's like a science report that flows, but doesn't sound overly scientific, yet it's still science!
Parasite Rex doesn't just deal with one specific parasite, like the title might suggest, rather it's a veritable tour of the parasitic world. The reader finds themselves enthralled with each creature. It really changes your perspective on the world as a whole, realizing that the major importance of sex is so that we can vary up our genetic code to better defend against such parasites. It also makes you realize that for all intents and purposes the fetuses of mammals would also be parasites as well because they force the mother to change her chemical reactions to support the fetus. Also the mother treats the fetus initially as a threat to her system. I personally found all this very fascinating and made me realize that perhaps Agent Smith in the Matrix, when he assessed the human race as a virus, probably should have identified them as a parasite.
The book is also terrifying in some regards because there are parts where it explains where parasites go wrong. Parasites are essentially programmed to thrive in specific locations in your body (or some other creatures). So a parasite that gets lodged in your brain, but it's supposed to be in your stomach could end up killing the host. Or screw up which species it attaches itself to. From what I gathered, the parasites main focus isn't to kill the host, but to feed off of the host's life, so when a parasite is in the wrong spot it executes its program, but it ends up having terrifying affects on the host.
In the end this was a phenomenal read and I can't recommend this enough. In fact I will probably read this a second time because when I read it the first time through I read it pretty quickly. One other thing this book made me not want to do is visit any location that's in the central area of the earth, such as the Amazon. Considering there have been 2,500 different parasites identified in one small location. Carl Zimmer is seriously the kind of writer we need in science to help transfer complex knowledge to the lay population.
I'm always reading, so I had to finish up a couple other books before I could start reading this one, so I waited patiently in eager anticipation. I'll usually read two or three books at a time, and when I finally got freed up, I started this book. I didn't read another book until I finished this. It is one of the most engrossing scientific books I have in my collection. Carl Zimmer is actually a phenomenal writer. I'm not a scientist, but I enjoy reading about it and it's written in a manner just about anyone should be able to understand. It's like a science report that flows, but doesn't sound overly scientific, yet it's still science!
Parasite Rex doesn't just deal with one specific parasite, like the title might suggest, rather it's a veritable tour of the parasitic world. The reader finds themselves enthralled with each creature. It really changes your perspective on the world as a whole, realizing that the major importance of sex is so that we can vary up our genetic code to better defend against such parasites. It also makes you realize that for all intents and purposes the fetuses of mammals would also be parasites as well because they force the mother to change her chemical reactions to support the fetus. Also the mother treats the fetus initially as a threat to her system. I personally found all this very fascinating and made me realize that perhaps Agent Smith in the Matrix, when he assessed the human race as a virus, probably should have identified them as a parasite.
The book is also terrifying in some regards because there are parts where it explains where parasites go wrong. Parasites are essentially programmed to thrive in specific locations in your body (or some other creatures). So a parasite that gets lodged in your brain, but it's supposed to be in your stomach could end up killing the host. Or screw up which species it attaches itself to. From what I gathered, the parasites main focus isn't to kill the host, but to feed off of the host's life, so when a parasite is in the wrong spot it executes its program, but it ends up having terrifying affects on the host.
In the end this was a phenomenal read and I can't recommend this enough. In fact I will probably read this a second time because when I read it the first time through I read it pretty quickly. One other thing this book made me not want to do is visit any location that's in the central area of the earth, such as the Amazon. Considering there have been 2,500 different parasites identified in one small location. Carl Zimmer is seriously the kind of writer we need in science to help transfer complex knowledge to the lay population.
April 21, 2013
Not that long ago parasites were considered evolutionary degenerates. Low-life, lazy creatures unable to fend for themselves in the "real" world, living off a host. That was before. These days, scientists have come to realize that many parasites in fact are incredibly sophistacted and are able to manipulate their hosts' behavior. Scary, scary thought. For example toxoplasma a parasite that has rats as its first host and cats as its second: it makes the rats lose its fear of cat urine and open spaces. Sometimes toxoplasma accidentally end up in humans. It doesn't do us any real harm, but it can also make us bolder and more risk-prone. Hm. Women with toxoplasma become "warmer and more outgoing". This is just one of many examples. There are other entirely different creatures that manipulate its host so that it can spread the furthest afield. So rather than being evolutionary degenerates, they are masters of manipulation. In creatures that can reproduce both asexually and sexually, if there are lots of parasites, the latter is preferred because it diversifies the genes and makes it more difficult for parasites to take a hold of the next generation. Of course it's a case of the "Red Queen" - the parasites will also develop new strategies.
This was an absolutely fascinating read. Before picking it up, I thought parasites downright abhorrent. Particularly cringe-worthy are the differents sorts of wasps that use tarantulas or caterpillars as living banquets for their offspring. Not that's it's any less disgusting, but I do appreciate how the wasps manage to suppress the immune system so that their eggs can hatch. The larvae then make sure to leave the main organs of the host intact, so that it is kept alive until they have had the time to mature. Oh yuck. Makes me think of a particularly loathsome scene in Michael Crichton's last book, "Micro", in which one of the poor sods who gets shrunk is visited by such a wasp.
Anyway, anyone fascinated by evolutionary biology and living creatures in general will surely enjoy "Parasite Rex" despite its occassionally cringe-worthy content.
This was an absolutely fascinating read. Before picking it up, I thought parasites downright abhorrent. Particularly cringe-worthy are the differents sorts of wasps that use tarantulas or caterpillars as living banquets for their offspring. Not that's it's any less disgusting, but I do appreciate how the wasps manage to suppress the immune system so that their eggs can hatch. The larvae then make sure to leave the main organs of the host intact, so that it is kept alive until they have had the time to mature. Oh yuck. Makes me think of a particularly loathsome scene in Michael Crichton's last book, "Micro", in which one of the poor sods who gets shrunk is visited by such a wasp.
Anyway, anyone fascinated by evolutionary biology and living creatures in general will surely enjoy "Parasite Rex" despite its occassionally cringe-worthy content.
June 19, 2017
They blossom out of insects' bodies, turn their hosts into zombies or, again, travel from one organism to another in a frantic race to survive. Behind the discoveries of some major vaccines they are, paradoxically, also able to fool very complex immune systems, sometimes even hijacking them against their poor victims. Microscopic but absolutely fascinating, they change our look upon life -we own them, for instance, some ground-breaking theories from the selfish gene to the Red Queen. Lethal and of an extreme virulence, they also help to maintain some ecosystems... In a word, parasites (yes! parasites!) are the real kings of the Earth and, after having for too long a bad press, it was about time to pay them our due respect!
Carl Zimmer has done just that here in a brilliant book which is, honestly, breath-taking. Telling the epic tales of the invisible world, 'Parasite Rex' became in fact one my top favourite read ever! Imagine, like Russian dolls we ourselves are vast ecosystems that are part of another ecosystem. Here's a terrifying yet enthralling vision but which is the key rendering this book absolutely superb: more that leading us into a microscopic world and its weird inhabitants, it humbles us by offering a new look upon nature. Fascinating, if you are even slightly interested in biology you MUST read this one. It is fascinating from beginning to end.
A marvel of pop science.
Carl Zimmer has done just that here in a brilliant book which is, honestly, breath-taking. Telling the epic tales of the invisible world, 'Parasite Rex' became in fact one my top favourite read ever! Imagine, like Russian dolls we ourselves are vast ecosystems that are part of another ecosystem. Here's a terrifying yet enthralling vision but which is the key rendering this book absolutely superb: more that leading us into a microscopic world and its weird inhabitants, it humbles us by offering a new look upon nature. Fascinating, if you are even slightly interested in biology you MUST read this one. It is fascinating from beginning to end.
A marvel of pop science.
May 5, 2016
Disgusting! Fascinating! Eye opening!
The first chapter had me entirely grossed out. Did I really want to read a book describing the disgusting things a parasite can do to my body? But then Carl Zimmer took it from the close to home sickness parasites can inflict on a human body to a fascinating journey into the world of parasites - what they are, where they come from, where we find them, how they evolved and adapt to their chosen niche, the fine balance between getting the most out of their host without tipping the scales and killing it outright, the role they play in keeping populations in check and in keeping ecosystems healthy.
The first chapter had me entirely grossed out. Did I really want to read a book describing the disgusting things a parasite can do to my body? But then Carl Zimmer took it from the close to home sickness parasites can inflict on a human body to a fascinating journey into the world of parasites - what they are, where they come from, where we find them, how they evolved and adapt to their chosen niche, the fine balance between getting the most out of their host without tipping the scales and killing it outright, the role they play in keeping populations in check and in keeping ecosystems healthy.
May 1, 2017
Eh. Interesting but pretty disgusting. Tried once before and put it aside. It's coming due, so probably won't finish it this time, either....
August 20, 2017
A lack of organization made this rather hard to read.
July 2, 2020
Se hace aburrido.
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