Parasite Rex (with a New Epilogue): Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures

by Carl Zimmer

Overview

IN THIS REISSUED PAPERBACK EDITION WITH A NEW EPILOGUE, 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, Carl Zimmer 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. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the parasite-riddled war zone of southern Sudan, Zimmer introduces an array of amazing creatures that invade their hosts, prey on them from within, and control their behavior. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743200110
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	11/09/2001
Edition description:	1 TOUCHSTO
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	386,232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.44(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge, is a frequent contributor to Discover, National Geographic, Natural History, Nature, and Science. He is a winner of the Everett Clark Award for science journalism and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. A John S. Guggenheim Fellow, he has also received the Pan-American Health Organization Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award. His previous books include Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, Parasite Rex, and At the Water's Edge. He lives in Guilford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Contents

Prologue: A Vein Is a River
First sightings of the inner world

1. Nature's Criminals
   
   How parasites came to be hated by just about everyone
2. Terra Incognita
   
   Swimming through the heart, fighting to the death
   
   inside a caterpillar, and other parasitic adventures
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
   

Glossary

Notes

Further Reading and Selected Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

Michael Harris Los Angeles Times A model of liveliness and clarity...a book capable of changing how we see the world.

Kevin Padian The New York Times With Parasite Rex, Zimmer proves himself as fine a science essayist as we have.

Mark Ridley The New Scientist A nonstop delight...Zimmer is a colorful writer, and takes full advantage of the macabre natural history of parasites.

Susan Adams Forbes Zimmer is such an accomplished, vivid writer that he is able to weave these revolting beasts into an engrossing story that you will read to the last page.

From the Publisher