Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature s Most Dangerous Creatures
£8.99
Hippity hop! Where to stop? - Once considered a degenerate form of life, parasites are being seen as important indicators of how evolution has progressed over 4 billion years. Zimmer credits them with being the driving force for biological diversity. He substantiates this claim with a sweeping, evocative survey of what is known today about parasites. That, he regretfully concedes, is little enough. What is known is that many early conceptions about parasites needed to be thrown aside as more information about this highly adaptable and widely variable range of organisms emerges.While we may recoil at the term parasite, Zimmer identifies but one villain in this book. Ray Lankester, a devoted Edwardian-era evolutionist, postulated that parasites were a regressive form of organism. He thought they shed evolutionary advantages as they simplified their bodies through their life cycles. Lankester thus set the tone for generations - biologists avoided studying parasites as offering no additional information revealing evolution s processes. Zimmer explains that since parasites are predators, it was thought they ought to follow the patterns of other predators - stalking prey like lions, or following scent gradients like sharks.Instead, as more about them came to light, it was revealed how adaptive parasites are. Some, in fact, have developed the talent of making prey come to them. One fluke invades a snail early in its career. In an intermediate, but distinctive form, it then moves to an ant. Residing in the ant s brain, at some point it directs the ant to climb a grass stalk. There it waits for the grass, along with the ant and itself, to be eaten by a cow. The fluke cruises through the cow s stomach before taking up residence in the liver as adults, yet another body form. When the eggs are produced, they return to the intestinal tract to be later deposited on the ground, awaited by the snails. Looking at each phase, residing in a different host, you would be inclined to see it as a separate species.This note is but one of the endless chorus of parasite adaptations Zimmer relates in this excellent book. He joins the refrain of older scientists lamenting the lack of upcoming researchers needed in parasite studies. Unlike the animals we see around us, most parasites have astonishingly varied body forms as they go through the phases of their life cycles. For years, this catalog of body plans was thought to display different species. Only recently has it been demonstrated that these creatures changed shape and function dramatically as they changed living environments. Identifying each stage, the invader s function there, the impact on the host and other elements requires long, patient and dedicated work.Those of us in the urban world think we can keep parasites at a distance, flooding our farms and wetlands with chemicals to fend them off. This is false confidence, Zimmer reminds us. Parasites are the most adaptable forms of life on the planet. They are as likely to promote change as respond to it. Zimmer cites Robin Dunbar s thesis that grooming for parasites ultimately allowed humans to develop speech and language. He explains how our immune systems and parasites enter a modus vivendi that allows the parasite and host alike to survive. Recognising how that process evolved could lead to better coexistence through taming the invaders.Coexistence with these minute creatures turns out to have many implications. It s now clear that the development of agriculture made human society vulnerable to invaders unknown on the savannah. Human bodies became less robust and mortality rates rose. How far back in time have they had influences on us and what are those? Zimmer suggests that some monkeys have developed manners in resource or mate competition. They scream and cavort, but don t scratch or bite rivals for fear of bloodworm infection. Others use particular leaves to clear digestive tracts of infestations. We hear of researchers seeking genes for schizophrenia, homosexuality, even gods. Zimmer thinks we re looking in the wrong place. Instead, he urges, we should identify the flukes for these and other aspects of human behaviour and form. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
From revulsion to respect - If you re interested in life in general and natural wonders in particular, you should find this book fascinating, with your senses of revulsion and respect stimulated in more or less equal measure. The author has travelled the world, collecting data for this book, meeting interesting parasitologists and discussing some of the weird and fantastically well-adapted parasites they study. Carl Zimmer seems to be on a mission to give us a fresh, new way of looking at parasites - they ve had a bad press and he s out to redress the balance. Parasite Rex should open your eyes to the part parasites play in maintaining a balance in the world s ecosystems, how vital they are to the well-being of life on our planet, how some can be used as a kind of canary in a mine to measure the health of an environment and so on. In addition to that, the parasites covered in this book are just incredibly interesting. There were several occasions when I wondered if I should really believe what the author was telling me - the sort of account you might expect to find in some science fiction tale - so I checked other sources and sure enough, some parasites are so outlandishly bizarre that their story is hard to believe.Zimmer explains how parasites came to be reviled, he describes a selection of species, their life cycles and the diseases they cause - sometimes using actual cases, he explains how they get into and manipulate their hosts (this is where you ll read some of the most astounding accounts that could out-weird any science fiction story), how their hosts fight back, how parasites have driven evolution by forcing their hosts into an arms race , and how we should, in some ways, try to be more like them (the more benign ones at least). Some parasites are deadly of course but many cause no more harm than they have to, because wiping out their hosts would not help their survival. Zimmer compares parasites that use their hosts in this considerate way to humans using this planet in a considerate, non-destructive way. He says there s no shame in being a parasite. If we treated our host (the planet) with the care and consideration that some parasites treat their hosts, our planet s ecosystems would not be in the mess they are today. You have to hand it to the author, that s a new and intriguing way of looking at parasites.I found his ideas very persuasive and I recommend this book. If you like Parasite Rex, you ll also enjoy Mark Ridley s The Red Queen and Arno Karlen s The Biography of a Germ, both of which I highly recommend.
A whole new way of looking at things - This book turns our view of life on our planet on to its head. It shows how parasites outnumber normal species and, far from being degenerate forms, are incredibly sophisticated and varied. All a bit worrying when you stop and think, but truly fascinating and the book is almost impossible to put down.
Excellent, wide-ranging insight - I bought this book on the basis of a favourable review in New Scientist. The book is written in a very accessible style, making it very readable by non-scientists and scientists alike. The story writing ability of Carl Zimmer is a welcome change from some of the supposed popular science authors. Many of the storys are deliciously gruesome, but also educational, as Carl explores the complex relationship of parasite and host from many angles. The role of parasitism in shaping eveolution is considered as are the physiological and behavioural consequences of a parastic relationship. My one criticism is that Carl does not differentiate between parasites (keep their hosts alive) and parasitoids (intentionally kill their hosts), a subtle distinction that I felt would have helped in his explanations. This is a minor issue and certainly does not detract from an excellent book. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is even vaguely interested in parasites and modern diseases.
Excellent, wide-ranging insight - I bought this book on the basis of a favourable review in New Scientist. The book is written in a very accessible style, making it very readable by non-scientists and scientists alike. The story writting ability of Carl Zimmer is a welcome change from some of the supposed popular science authors. Many of the storys are deliciously gruesome, but also educational, as Carl explores the complex relationship of parasite and host from many angles. The role of parasitism in shaping eveolution is considered as are the physiological and behavioural consequences of a parastic relationship. My one criticism is that Carl does not differentiate between parasites (keep their hosts alive) and parasitoids (intentionally kill their hosts), a subtle distinction that I felt would have helped in his explanations. This is a minor issue and certainly does not detract from an excellent book. I would thoroughly recommend this bokk at anyone who is even vaguely interested in parasites and modern diseases.