BOOK REVIEW: Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer
I’m one mad Science junkie who loves all things
scientifically gross and macabre. When Animal Planet aired its first season of
Monsters Inside Me (a documentary on bodily parasites) I was hooked (pun
intended). Soon after that, I begin my search for a book that would tell me
more about these microscopic albeit killer organisms that were fascinating as
they were horrifying.
In this reissued paperback edition with a new epilogue, the
author, Carl Zimmer reveals the power, danger and beauty of parasites.
For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror
stories, and the darkest shadows of science. In Parasite Rex, the author takes
readers on a fantastic voyage into the secret universe of these extraordinary
life-forms – which are not only among the most highly evolved on Earth, but
make up the majority of life’s diversity.
Travelling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the
parasite-riddled warzone of southern Sudan, Zimmer introduces an array of
amazing creatures that invade their hosts, prey on them from within, and
control their behaviour. He also vividly describes parasites that can change
DNA, rewire the brain, make men more distrustful and women more outgoing, and
turn hosts into the living dead.
This comprehensive, gracefully written book brings parasites
out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us all about the most
fundamental survival tactics in the universe – the laws of Parasite Rex.
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