About this title: This colorful natural history surveys the world of the often reviled parasite and its place in science and popular culture. As this accessible tour provides historical and scientific context, it describes the obvious destructiveness of the organisms while offering numerous examples in nature of ecologically beneficial parasitic relationships.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780099457992ISBN:0099457997
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780684856384ISBN:0684856387
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Description: Fair. 0684856387 Ex-library book with stickers and stampings. Overall good condition with clean text and good binding unless otherwise noted. Edges soiled. Pages warped. Most items ship within 24 hours. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2000-09-21
ISBN-13:9780684856384ISBN:0684856387
Description: Good. *WITHDRAWN LIBRARY COPY* with customary markings. Cover shows circulation wear. Underlining in Pencil. Being sold on consignment for the library. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780743200110ISBN:074320011X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Date Published: 04/09/2003
ISBN-13:9780099457992ISBN:0099457997
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Date Published: 04/09/2003
ISBN-13:9780099457992ISBN:0099457997
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Edition: First paperback edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Free Press; Simon & Schuster, New York
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780965007580ISBN:0965007588
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. xxii, 298 pp., illus., biblio., index; 21 cm. Firm binding, with one spine crease. Clean inside copy. "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 ... read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Touchstone, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780743200110ISBN:074320011X
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. New York: Touchstone, 2000; Trade Paperback.8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 298pp., index, bibliography, notes, illustrated. Very Good/No Jacket. Black and yelow illustrated card covers, light wear, a clean, tight and unmarked copy. Brings parasites out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us about the most fundamental survival tactics in the universe. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Date Published: 04/09/2003
ISBN-13:9780099457992ISBN:0099457997
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: TOUCHSTONE PRESS
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780743200110ISBN:074320011X
Description: New. Zimmer takes readers on a tour of the strange and bizarre world of parasites, including their ability to rewrite DNA, rewire the brain, and genetically engineer viruses as weapons. 16-page photo insert. read more
"Another informative and entertaining read from Carl Zimmer. I occasionally found the book to be slightly disorganized, seeming at times like it was more stream of consciousness than carefully outlined. But this was rare and minor. A greater quibble I had with it was some statement of fact, that, as a scientist, I felt must surely have some points of equivocation. Zimmer's strength is in making science straightforward and easily understood, but in reality science rarely is actually this way. So it left me feeling like the complexity and possibly more interesting aspects of the story were left out in the interest of presenting as fact certain aspects of the wide world of parasitology. The greatest thing to be learned from this book? The recognition that parasites have, and like always will, be the kinds of the animal kingdom, rather than so many hangers-on."
"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.""
"This book is great, it really might change the way you look at the world. It certainly had an impact on my understanding of evolution and ecology. The narrative was quite good- it never got dry for me despite the huge amount of information presented, though i am a bio nerd. I do however think it's very accessible for non-biology oriented readers."
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