false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg 815394 4 Many books provoke a visceral reaction, but few really make you <I>itch</I>. Science writer Carl Zimmer's <I>Parasite Rex</I> does just that, provoking a deliciously creepy sense of paranoia in the reader as it explores a long-misunderstood realm of science. While entomologists love to announce that there are more species of insects than all other animals combined, few parasitologists choose to trump that by reminding us that "parasites may outnumber free-living species four to one." That figure is based on the multicellular chauvinism of the 19th century, which excludes bacteria and fungi from consideration (athlete's foot, anyone?), but Zimmer looks at the <I>E. coli</I> in our guts as well as the worms, flukes, mites, and other critters that earn a healthy living at our expense--and the expense of our domesticated plants and animals.<p> The author traveled to Africa to see firsthand the effects of sleeping sickness and river blindness. He learned from physicians and researchers that the parasites that wreak so much havoc are much more than the simple degenerates we've taken them for. Their complex adaptations to their environments--us--are as lovely and awe-inspiring as any eye or wing. The examples of hormonal and other behavioral control of hosts, causing changes in feeding habits and other life essentials, are chilling when personalized. Zimmer knows his subject well, and his writing, while robust and affecting, never descends to the all-too-easy gross-out. You wouldn't expect to find respect for a tapeworm, but <I>Parasite Rex</I> will show you how beautiful Earth's truly dominant life forms are. <I>--Rob Lightner</I> 801317 2000 Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures total:296|5:136|4:99|3:51|2:9|1:1| 296 1248 490 60 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 3 false Tue Dec 09 11:08:02 -0800 2008 Sat May 31 05:28:12 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 09 11:08:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 1 false Tue Feb 05 00:00:50 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 05 00:25:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 3 1 false Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 16:04:03 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 16:53:12 -0700 2009
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...more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 1 false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 20:59:31 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 21:15:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Wed Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 12:14:54 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 12:24:15 -0700 2009 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 ...more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 3 0 false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 09:27:20 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 15 14:45:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Mon Mar 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Feb 16 20:10:13 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 29 13:01:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 2 0 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 11:53:01 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 11:53:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 0 false Sun Nov 16 14:48:22 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 16 14:58:23 -0800 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 11:28:39 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 11:39:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 3 0 false Tue May 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 27 08:41:24 -0800 2008 Tue May 06 06:37:43 -0700 2008 This book was like a tapeworm-infested intenstine -- it was almost too much to digest! It was so jam-packed with information that I wished the chapters would've been broken down into smaller sections with more descriptive chapter titles. For instance, maybe I want...more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Sun May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed May 16 10:50:47 -0700 2007 Wed May 16 10:51:04 -0700 2007
"Here the fluke lodges itself in a vessel and finally has its first meal since leaving the snail: a drop of blood. It now begins to mature. If it'...more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Thu Feb 26 14:21:50 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 14:24:11 -0800 2009
I liked it so much after reading it first from the lib...more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 0 false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 12:55:58 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 13:04:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 3 0 false Sun Nov 29 22:38:47 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 29 22:40:28 -0800 2009 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 1 0 false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 15:25:07 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 15:25:52 -0800 2008 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Mar 06 15:48:24 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 15:52:09 -0800 2009 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Wed Apr 16 23:12:12 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 23:12:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 5 0 false Thu Jul 17 08:14:55 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 08:22:39 -0700 2008 more...]]> 815394 074320011X 9780743200110 280 56 4.22 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987m/815394.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/815394.Parasite_Rex_Inside_the_Bizarre_World_of_Nature_s_Most_Dangerous_Creatures 4 0 false Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 06:23:42 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 15:10:57 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=815394