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Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are
We think of disease as our enemy, something we try to eradicate; germs and infections are things we battle. But in this witty, engaging book, evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk reveals that, in fact, disease is our partner, not our foe, and is responsible for everything from how we look to how we have sex.
Since the earliest days of life on earth, disease has evolved alongside us. Drawing on the latest research and studies, Zuk explains the role of disease in answering a fascinating range of questions such Why do men die younger than women? Why does the average male bird not have a penis? Why do we―and lots of other animals―get STDs? How is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? And how can parasites sometimes make us well?
Using her own work on sexual selection as well as a sampling of stories from the natural world, Zuk makes us reconsider the fearsome parasite.
Since the earliest days of life on earth, disease has evolved alongside us. Drawing on the latest research and studies, Zuk explains the role of disease in answering a fascinating range of questions such Why do men die younger than women? Why does the average male bird not have a penis? Why do we―and lots of other animals―get STDs? How is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker? And how can parasites sometimes make us well?
Using her own work on sexual selection as well as a sampling of stories from the natural world, Zuk makes us reconsider the fearsome parasite.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2007
16 people are currently reading
351 people want to read
About the author
Marlene Zuk
17 books57 followersMarlene Zuk is an American evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist. She worked as professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) until she transferred to the University of Minnesota in 2012. Her studies involve sexual selection and parasites.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 6, 2015
This is the main book of the moment. Marlene Zuk is an evolutionary biologist and is making all kinds of fascinating connections between diseases and why they exist in us. For instance, cystic fibrosis which eventually means an early death or lung transplant for most of its sufferers who have inherited two copies of the gene, may have arisen because those with (one copy of) the gene are much less susceptible to losing liquid in a cholera attack. And its the loss of fluid that causes death very quickly in cholera.
I enjoyed the chapter on sex for procreation being a reaction to bacteria and found the last chapter on whether we truly own our personalities or if, at least some of the time, they are either a reaction to or manipulated by one of the bugs that inhabit us.
I enjoyed the chapter on sex for procreation being a reaction to bacteria and found the last chapter on whether we truly own our personalities or if, at least some of the time, they are either a reaction to or manipulated by one of the bugs that inhabit us.
March 11, 2010
Dr. Zuk is first and foremost a terrific parasitologist. The portions of the book that Zuk spends discussing her own Ph.D. thesis and her own research, especially regarding sexual selection. The central portion of the book from about page 80 to page 180 is fascinating & probably should have been released as a stand-alone book -- it is focused, it flows and the topic is fascinating (these are the chapters on sexual selection, infection differences between the sexes and sexually transmitted diseases.)
The first 80 pages drag, and are covered both more interestingly and in more detail in hundreds of other popular science books. Also, the topics in these chapters (heterozygote advantage, hygeine hypothesis) have little to do with Zuk's central themes. Theis portion of the book also is infested with what Zuk seems to think are wry little asides, which grate terribly. The concluding paragraphs are interesting, but lack the compulsive readable of the earlier chapters.
The first 80 pages drag, and are covered both more interestingly and in more detail in hundreds of other popular science books. Also, the topics in these chapters (heterozygote advantage, hygeine hypothesis) have little to do with Zuk's central themes. Theis portion of the book also is infested with what Zuk seems to think are wry little asides, which grate terribly. The concluding paragraphs are interesting, but lack the compulsive readable of the earlier chapters.
April 4, 2021
Ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον πόνημα το οποίο θα έπρεπε να διαβαστεί από όλους μας. Θα μας βοηθήσει να καταλάβουμε καλύτερα τον κόσμο των αόρατων μικροοργανισμών γύρω μας και πως θα μπορέσουμε να συμβιώσουμε καλύτερα μαζί τους! Καλογραμμένο και ευκολοδιάβαστο!
September 9, 2008
Very interesting subject and good book overall, altho the author's analogies and attempts to 'dumb things down' is often a little much.
June 15, 2025
This is a fascinating book about parasites, both those that cause human disease and those that affect animals and plants. The book was published in 2007 and so does not address the COVID-19 pandemic, but does offer warnings about the potential of avian flu to become a pandemic in humans.
The book discusses the evolution of human disease and interesting topicss such as anti-biotic resistance and some approaches for warding off illness, but my particular interest (especially when writing a review for this blog) was in the parasites that affect non-human organisms.
Parasites are everywhere and co-evolve with their hosts, often becoming less severe in their effects as time goes on. An interesting case study offered to show this is how myxomatosis declined in effectiveness at reducing the plagues of rabbits that caused havoc in Australia after they were introduced to the continent. At first all the bunnies dies once they were infected but soon 5% of infected rabbits were surviving, and continuing to cause problems for the native flora and fauna as well as for agriculturalists.
Because disease is everywhere, animals have evolved ways of demonstrating their health to potential partners, this is a possible explanation for such seeming extravagances as the peacock's tail or the nightingale's song. A male who is able to put his energies into creating the most beautiful song or plumage is less likely to be hosting lots of parasites (the author details studies, some of which she was involved in herself, to show the correlations between birds' plumage, songs and other characteristics and parasite loads). Studies have also shown that some birds use aromatic herbs in their nests, to reduce the number of fleas living in the nest materials and that chimpanzees can rid themselves of intestinal parasites by ingesting particular types of leaves.
Into the future, climate change may make some parasites more dangerous as warmer temperatures make reproduction easier. This has already happened with a roundworm that infects the lungs of musk oxen as their arctic homelands become warmer, meaning that the roundworm that used to be relatively benign is now present in such numbers that it kills significant numbers of the oxen.
This review just gives a very brief taste of the book, which is fascinating and well worth reading if you're interested in parasites and disease. However, some details are definitely not for the squeamish!
The book discusses the evolution of human disease and interesting topicss such as anti-biotic resistance and some approaches for warding off illness, but my particular interest (especially when writing a review for this blog) was in the parasites that affect non-human organisms.
Parasites are everywhere and co-evolve with their hosts, often becoming less severe in their effects as time goes on. An interesting case study offered to show this is how myxomatosis declined in effectiveness at reducing the plagues of rabbits that caused havoc in Australia after they were introduced to the continent. At first all the bunnies dies once they were infected but soon 5% of infected rabbits were surviving, and continuing to cause problems for the native flora and fauna as well as for agriculturalists.
Because disease is everywhere, animals have evolved ways of demonstrating their health to potential partners, this is a possible explanation for such seeming extravagances as the peacock's tail or the nightingale's song. A male who is able to put his energies into creating the most beautiful song or plumage is less likely to be hosting lots of parasites (the author details studies, some of which she was involved in herself, to show the correlations between birds' plumage, songs and other characteristics and parasite loads). Studies have also shown that some birds use aromatic herbs in their nests, to reduce the number of fleas living in the nest materials and that chimpanzees can rid themselves of intestinal parasites by ingesting particular types of leaves.
Into the future, climate change may make some parasites more dangerous as warmer temperatures make reproduction easier. This has already happened with a roundworm that infects the lungs of musk oxen as their arctic homelands become warmer, meaning that the roundworm that used to be relatively benign is now present in such numbers that it kills significant numbers of the oxen.
This review just gives a very brief taste of the book, which is fascinating and well worth reading if you're interested in parasites and disease. However, some details are definitely not for the squeamish!
September 21, 2018
A rather large (300 pages) book on how intertwined parasites are with our lives. Instead of simply fighting them, it looks into how our relationship with parasites affects us in the way we evolve, choose a mate, make decisions, develop chronic illnesses, etc. It's an okay read but feels like it could have been about 100 pages because it seems to digress a lot and presents multiple examples to make one point.
May 24, 2019
Gross but compelling nonetheless. Written for the layperson in a conversational style, so if you think you'd like the subject matter, pick it up.
January 2, 2021
Delightful, detailed while engaging,good pacing.
April 9, 2009
This books has parts that are so full of fascinating information I felt if it was 2000 pages I could read the entire thing in one night. Unfortunately, it also has parts that are so dry and flat that it ended up taking me weeks to get through it. It started out as a book I would recommend to nearly everyone interested in disease, and ends up a book I can only recommend to those few people I know would push through the dry sections to finish.
I had hoped for a lot more practical information about just generally feeling at ease with our place in a complex interplay of competing life, and in the opening of the book she does offer a fair bit of that, but the net result of the book is me just generally being creeped out by how much stuff is out there eager to feed off me or kill me.
Adding to that a strong anti-male theme throughout the book which barely tries to cover itself up and I found by the end I disliked the author a fair bit. I'm unclear what her past is, or what she's gone through as a female trying to make it in science, but i come off with the sense it hasn't been easy. Her voice echoes a pitiful theme seen in so many popular sitcoms these days of nearly retarded male making more work for the enlightened, calm, focused female who keeps it all together.
I suspect Oprah and her would get on just fine.
I had hoped for a lot more practical information about just generally feeling at ease with our place in a complex interplay of competing life, and in the opening of the book she does offer a fair bit of that, but the net result of the book is me just generally being creeped out by how much stuff is out there eager to feed off me or kill me.
Adding to that a strong anti-male theme throughout the book which barely tries to cover itself up and I found by the end I disliked the author a fair bit. I'm unclear what her past is, or what she's gone through as a female trying to make it in science, but i come off with the sense it hasn't been easy. Her voice echoes a pitiful theme seen in so many popular sitcoms these days of nearly retarded male making more work for the enlightened, calm, focused female who keeps it all together.
I suspect Oprah and her would get on just fine.
October 6, 2014
A fascinating look into the parasites and pathogens that make us who we are, Riddled with Life takes the lens of evolutionary biology to explore modern medicine, disease, genetics, and why humans and animals behave the way that they do. This is a great book of science for the non-scientist; Zuk explains her terms clearly and makes it engaging, relevant, and even humorous for the standard, educated reader. This book makes me want to simultaneously be a little less clean (we don't really need antibacterial hand soap, and we have probably caused some allergies by over-sanitizing) at the same time I want to curl up in a whole and hope I don't succumb to parasites (what if parasites help cause cancer!). At least I have the comfort of knowing that human defenses evolve in response to pathogens--we won't be left behind in what is officially, as Zuk explains, not a war (us vs. bacteria turns out not to be the most useful approach).
Chapters 7 to 9 got a little slower to me--too many animal examples with not quite enough applicability for me (this is the non-scientist reader speaking). But overall it was a great read.
Chapters 7 to 9 got a little slower to me--too many animal examples with not quite enough applicability for me (this is the non-scientist reader speaking). But overall it was a great read.
December 20, 2013
This book was certainly intriguing. I learned a lot about how different parasites affect their hosts. The beginning seems very different from the middle and end. She starts by addressing misconceptions about parasites and how we harm ourselves from our fear of parasites by being 'overly clean'. Then she goes into specific instances of parasitic infection focusing a bit more on the animal kingdom as a whole than the you could gauge from the beginning. Some of it was surprising, some of it was counter-intuitive (at first), some of it was disturbing (though I will say if you're the squeamish type, the book is light on the grosser parts of parasitic infection).
All in all, it felt decently organized (except for maybe the end), pretty accessible, and I learned a lot of interesting facts I didn't know about parasites. I'll admit that by the end I had my fill of parasite lore, but I think that was probably just as far as my passion for the topic went-not the fault of the author.
Another great read!
All in all, it felt decently organized (except for maybe the end), pretty accessible, and I learned a lot of interesting facts I didn't know about parasites. I'll admit that by the end I had my fill of parasite lore, but I think that was probably just as far as my passion for the topic went-not the fault of the author.
Another great read!
July 24, 2011
I am presently finishing my third reading of this book! Yes, so no need to wonder why I have given it a "5." Marlene Zuk is a parasitologist, not a common profession, but gosh does it sound interesting. She brings forth various proofs and conjectures as to the origin of many human diseases and illnesses and using a wide range of examples from the animal kingdom to make her points and posit her theories. Sadly, her other books are all textbooks but I am eagerly awaiting more readable books so I can gobble them up!
I would like to add that besides the unusual and, sometimes hair-raising, anecdotes and arcane facts that she presents to the reader, she has a sense of rhythm and wit that pulls the reader along ... there is no effort needed to read this selection, she pulls the reader along like a tour guide on a fascinating excursion!
Read this book to learn how bedbugs mate ... it will make you laugh and simultaneously give you the chills!
I would like to add that besides the unusual and, sometimes hair-raising, anecdotes and arcane facts that she presents to the reader, she has a sense of rhythm and wit that pulls the reader along ... there is no effort needed to read this selection, she pulls the reader along like a tour guide on a fascinating excursion!
Read this book to learn how bedbugs mate ... it will make you laugh and simultaneously give you the chills!
November 4, 2014
Luin jälleen kerran Marlene Zukin mainion kirjan parasiiteista, taudeista, bakteereista ynnä muista ihmis- ja muun eliöelon salamatkustajista. (Note to self: seuraavalla kerralla muista alleviivata parhaat kohdat!). Salakavalan hauskasti kirjoitettu kirja avaa silmät kerran jos toisenkin siitä, kuinka loiset tai taudinaiheuttajat voivat hallita isäntäänsä, mutta toisaalta kuinka niistä voi isännälle olla myös hyötyä. Kirja on täynnä jännittäviä tieteellisiä löydöksiä ja faktoja, joita on hauska siteerata aina sopivan tilaisuuden tullen. Että tiesitkö muuten, että...
No joo. Suosittelen kirjaa henkilölle, jolla on aito kiinnostus kehitysbiologiaan sekä jännittäviin loisiin. Tämän kirjan luettuasi ei elämä enää näytä samalta. Todellakaan. Jos et jaksa keskittyä kovin pitkäjännitteisesti, niin samat asiat löydät hieman vielä populaarimmin kirjoitettuna samantyyppisessä Parasite-Rex -kirjassa.
No joo. Suosittelen kirjaa henkilölle, jolla on aito kiinnostus kehitysbiologiaan sekä jännittäviin loisiin. Tämän kirjan luettuasi ei elämä enää näytä samalta. Todellakaan. Jos et jaksa keskittyä kovin pitkäjännitteisesti, niin samat asiat löydät hieman vielä populaarimmin kirjoitettuna samantyyppisessä Parasite-Rex -kirjassa.
July 30, 2008
So this is another that I ended up being a bit too lazy to finish. I got most of the way through, and then realized there wasn't enough left to last me my commute home and back, so I just left it in lab, and haven't picked it up since.
It's definitely not a bad book. For a non-scientist, it would probably be book that opens doors you've never thought about. Even for me (who pretends to be a microbiologist), a lot of the evolutionary biology stuff was "ooohhhh nifty!". But I sorta felt like she made her point (quite nicely) pretty early on, and all the rest of it ended up being small distinctions of said point. They were still really really cool biological examples, I just didn't feel the need to read every example, and thus was ok not finishing the book in a way I would very rarely be with fiction.
It's definitely not a bad book. For a non-scientist, it would probably be book that opens doors you've never thought about. Even for me (who pretends to be a microbiologist), a lot of the evolutionary biology stuff was "ooohhhh nifty!". But I sorta felt like she made her point (quite nicely) pretty early on, and all the rest of it ended up being small distinctions of said point. They were still really really cool biological examples, I just didn't feel the need to read every example, and thus was ok not finishing the book in a way I would very rarely be with fiction.
November 7, 2011
This book is perfect for the non-squeamish who are interested in the give-and-take between animals, parasites, and the world at large, especially those readers possessing a sense of humor. Marlene Zuk manages to keep her tone refreshingly informal while discussing topics such as Darwinian medicine, parasite and host coevolution, and the detrimental immune system effects of testosterone--she makes snide pop culture references in her asides, and her language manages to convey a lot of fairly detailed information without being inaccessible or dense. I found this extremely readable and interesting, and fun in that "learning about liver flukes" sort of way.
April 4, 2010
Very interesting book. I've always been of the mind that society has created an environment of fear around germs, so this book was definitely preaching to the choir. It was nice to read about the "facts" and research that have gone into germs and parasites and all the other organisms that we don't like to think about. It's all part of the natural world and as much as we don't like to think of worms and parasites as being good for us, they really do serve a useful purpose. Consider that the next time you immediately reach for the drugs at the first sign of a cold.
September 23, 2008
Marlene Zuk is PhD author with a very readable style on most topics.The sections that covered her own research were a little harder to get through though. I suppose when you spend many years getting into the minutia of a subject it seems more interesting to you than to the general reader.
While she presented cases of both helpful and harmful microbes and parasites, I came away with a generally more positive views of the other living creatures within all of us.
While she presented cases of both helpful and harmful microbes and parasites, I came away with a generally more positive views of the other living creatures within all of us.
August 29, 2007
This was a fairly informative book about the evolutionary effects of bacteria, viruses, and parasites on humans and animals. I hadn't realized the extent to which almost every aspect of our anatomy and behavior has been in some way shaped by the pathogens that we live with and often prefer not to think about.
September 12, 2007
There's a huge ick factor in this book, which deals in worms and other parasites of humanity, as well as the evolution of immune systems and infectious agents. The science is fascinating, and the conclusions amply supported by Darwinian reasoning. Perhaps we've been too hasty in trying to rid ourselves of every possible disease and parasitic hanger-on.
November 24, 2008
This book is pretty interesting if you are curious about the disease and how many species have evolved to compensate for it (both disease and host)... but as Jessie pointed out, it does get a bit repetitive. Still, the author has a lively voice which makes even the repetition interesting. I would recommend it to anyone with a little interest in the subject matter.
October 6, 2013
Accessible science! Fun to read.
"People take course in wine or music appreciation . . . Think of this book as a disease appreciation course, . . . recognizing its imprint on every aspect of our lives."
And I just saw an episode of House that was based on chapter 2, treating Crohn's disease with parasitic worms.
"People take course in wine or music appreciation . . . Think of this book as a disease appreciation course, . . . recognizing its imprint on every aspect of our lives."
And I just saw an episode of House that was based on chapter 2, treating Crohn's disease with parasitic worms.
August 21, 2012
Fascinating, redefines what we think of being human, when you consider the number of none human pests we host and how we co-evolved and how they probably influence our behavior and contribute to who we are
July 30, 2007
Not as interesting as the title would lead you to believe, but if you've ever snickered at the shelves of antibacterial soap in the supermarket, it'll make you feel like a genius...
Want to read
March 27, 2008 Marlene Zuk wrote an excellent essay on the NYTimes' health blog.
April 26, 2008
Gross and yet fascinating! Easy to understand and possible to skim, which is what I did instead of reading carefully.
June 25, 2008
truly awesome read-- even better than Survival of the Sickest.
The complexity of interaction that results in all living things-- all systems-- never ceases to amaze!
The complexity of interaction that results in all living things-- all systems-- never ceases to amaze!
July 22, 2008
interesting and a good, light read, however the middle of the book gets stuck on one subject and it seems to drag on for a little. The final few chapters redeem this 'backroad".
December 4, 2008
A fun, readable explanation of the role that other organisms have played and continue to play in human evolution and health.
February 23, 2012
Excellent!
September 13, 2012
This book had some interesting information presented in a light-hearted easy to read style. I thought some of the jokes were a bit self indulgent, but didn't detract too much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews