Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are

by Marlene Zuk

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

616.07

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Harvest Books (2008), Edition: 1, Paperback, 328 pages

Description

According to evolutionary biologist Zuk, germs and disease don't deserve their bad rep. Drawing on recent research and her own studies, she explains why disease is mankind's best friend, indeed the key that jump-started the entire evolutionary explosion. Along the way, she answers questions many of us dare not ask, such as: Why don't male birds have penises? Why are we attracted to our mates? Zuk also describes the function of STDs and explains why women live longer than men. Her wide-ranging sampling of stories from the natural will appeal to everyone who enjoys popular science.--From publisher description.

User reviews

LibraryThing member kaelirenee

The book is an excellent and easy to read and appreciate explination of Darwinian medicine and sexual evolution. The essential message of this book is that, without the help of viruses, bacterium, fungi and parasites, we would never have evolved into the adaptable, advanced, sexual beings we are

today. It also presents the message that it is vital to understand the evolutionary mechanisms that brought us to this point in our development so we can better treat patients with various ailments. By understanding how the body reacts to and uses microbes, we can better treat infections and autoimmune disorders.

This is an excellent book for people who don't have a strong science background. Those with medicine, evolution, or genetics in their backgrounds will spend most of their time reading reviews of what they already know. But it's still worth the read.

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LibraryThing member WomanofSpirit

The author's sense of humor makes this interesting topic a little easier to enjoy.

LibraryThing member satyridae

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.

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LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne

This was fairly interesting, but it got to be a bit much by the end.

I read this in German, and I suspect that the style problems that caused me to mark it down somewhat are due to the translation. There are also several places where a negative sentence only makes sense in context if it should be

positive. The 'breezy convenient feeling' and 'sense of humor' mentioned by other reviewers don't really come across. There are several places where a sentence seems to be fully out of place, but I suspect that the connection is actually there in English but the idiom either is not translatable or not recognized by the translator. Or perhaps these don't come over because the translator is taking the whole thing too seriously.

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LibraryThing member haikupatriot

Fascinating scientific information Author has a sense of humor that prevents the topic of this book from being dry

LibraryThing member kaitanya64

A fun, readable explanation of the role that other organisms have played and continue to play in human evolution and health.

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