Wednesday 16 March 2016

18. Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer


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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