Parasite Rex

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Many books provoke a visceral reaction, but few really make you itch. Science writer Carl Zimmer's Parasite Rex 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 E. coli 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.

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 Parasite Rex will show you how beautiful Earth's truly dominant life forms are. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
One of the year's most fascinating works of popular science is also its most disgusting. From tapeworms to isopods to ichneumon wasps, "parasites are complex, highly adapted creatures that are at the heart of the story of life." Zimmer (At the Water's Edge) devotes his second book to the enormous variety of one- and many-celled organisms that live on and inside other animals and plants. The gruesome trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness had nearly been routed from Sudan when the country's civil war began: now they're back. Costa Rican researcher Daniel Brooks has discovered dozens of parasites, including flies that lay eggs in deer noses: "snot bots." And those are only the creatures from the prologue. Zimmer discusses how the study of parasites began, with 19th-century discoveries about their odd life cycles. (Many take on several forms in several generations, so that a mother worm may resemble her granddaughter, but not her daughter.) He looks at how parasites pass from host to host, and how they defeat immune systems and vice versa. Many parasites alter their hosts' behavior: Toxoplasma makes infected rats fearless, thus more likely to be eaten by cats, who will then pick up the microbe. Quantifiable "laws of virulence" lead parasites to become nasty enough to spread, yet not so nasty as to wipe out all their hosts. And eons of coevolution can affect both partners: howler monkeys may avoid violent fights because screwworms can render the least scratch fatal. Two final chapters address parasites in human medicine and agriculture. Not only are parasites not all bad, Zimmer concludes in this exemplary work of popular science, but we may be parasites, tooDand we have a lot to learn from them about how to manage earth, the host we share. Illus. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Zimmer, a columnist at National History, has written an absolutely fascinating book about parasitesDonce the reader gets past the "grossness" factor. As with his previous book, At the Water's Edge (LJ 2/1/98), evolution is central: Zimmer considers not only how parasites have evolved but how they may have helped the evolution of other species. Though humans are not the only species discussed, some of the most interesting evolutionary theories come from human-parasite relations. Mild cases of sickle cell anemia, for instance, seem to protect against malaria, implying that these sorts of blood diseases have evolved with the aid of parasites. The author discusses more recent research suggesting that some modern diseases, such as allergies or ulcerative colitis, may actually be triggered by our immune systems' not having parasites to fight. This well-written book makes parasitology interesting and accessible to anyone. Not a textbook (a few good ones are recommended in a selected bibliography), it does have a place in science libraries, even for students who don't realize that their field of study is related to parasitology. Recommended for public and academic libraries.DMargaret Henderson, Cold Spring Harbor Academics, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Repulsive they may be to us, but Mother Nature cares not a whit for our feelings about parasites. She's concerned only with how successful those deadly freeloaders are in the evolutionary struggle, and, by any measure, parasites are thriving winners. This is a ghastly state of affairs for sufferers of river blindness, sleeping sickness, malaria, and more; fortunately, in the outlands of biology, a specialty called parasitology labors to understand and combat the organisms causing such afflictions. This is the field Zimmer unblinkingly explores, replete with scenes of dissections that expose the worms, flukes, and single-celled organisms that invade a host. Gross! But as Zimmer estimably explains how tough life is from the parasite's perspective, such as the relentless battle with the host's immune system, the reader begins to concede parasites their niche in the ecological system. Further, Zimmer usefully discusses parasites' behaviors, especially their defenses against antibodies, as evolutionary adaptations reaching back to the primeval epochs of life's history. A well-organized and well-presented survey of parasites' life cycles and the debilitations they cause. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"... Zimmer proves himself as fine a science essayist as we have, in the company of John McPhee, David Quammen..." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Zimmer is such an accomplished, vivid writer that he is able to weave these revolting beasts into an engrossing story..." -- Forbes magazine

Henry Gee Senior Editor at Nature and author of In Search of Deep Time As Zimmer shows, parasites are the real drivers of evolution: we live at best only arm's length from the unseen creatures that control our lives. Zimmer loves his subject, and his treatment is gentle rather than sensational: the understatement only heightens the horror. Read Parasite Rex and shudder -- your dinner-party conversations will never be the same again. -- Review

Review
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.



Product Description
Parasites are the most successful life-forms on Earth. Every animal is, at one time or another, the home of a parasite. Humankind itself may be a parasite, one that preys on the entire Earth. If we are to promote the flourishing of life in all its diversity, we must learn the ways of Parasite Rex.

About the Author
Inheritor of Stephen Jay Gould's column in Natural History, which he shares with Jared Diamond, Carl Zimmer is the author of Evolution and At The Water's Edge. He lives in New York City.