![]() ![]() You may also wish to purchase from either Amazon or Blackwell’s. Try checking the availability of this book at your school or local library or explore second hand bookshops and websites. If you’re interested in any type of science and want to read about something you’ll never normally cover at school, give this book a go. The book only assumes a very basic level of understanding of genetics and should be pretty accessible from even GCSE Science. It’s really weird and interesting to realise that all this is going on around you – and it’s something pretty different to what I learned in standard Biology at school.Ĭarl Zimmer is quite a famous science writer who has a real gift for making complex subjects both easy to understand and truly fascinating to read about, and I’d certainly recommend his work to anyone looking for an introduction to a topic – the bibliography and footnotes are great places to look for other sources of information. ![]() You’ll also get a good treatment of the human immune system and how parasites exploit its quirks. The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E.He describes different physical scales as well – from parasites as tiny as a virus to those as big as the cuckoo bird or guinea worm. A Best Book of the YearSeed Magazine Granta Magazine The Plain-DealerIn this fascinating and utterly engaging book, Carl Zimmer traces E. Zimmer explains how the creatures have both affected us on evolutionary timescales – ranging from malaria encouraging sickle cell anemia to creating a species of fly that has coexisted with its parasites for so long that it cannot reproduce without them – and on more recent, economic timescales – like using parasitic wasps to reduce pests on cassava crops in Africa. In 2004, Zimmer launched 'The Loom,' a blog about science that has been hosted over the years by Discover and National Geographic. Here you can read articles he's written for The New York Times, National Geographic, and other publications. ![]() The pages are packed with really interesting facts about the parasites that cause both human and animal diseases, and the profound impacts that parasites have had on all parts of life. Carl Zimmer has been writing about science since 1990. I was never particularly interested in biology and am quite squeamish naturally, but this is the one book that made me consider being a parasitologist! I first read it when I was about 17, and have been spouting malaria facts ever since. Carl Zimmer (born 1966) is a popular science writer, blogger, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of evolution, parasites, and heredity. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.This book has a slightly scary-looking dark cover with a picture of some kind of microscopic flea, but don’t let that or the topic of parasitic diseases put you off! It’s a fascinating read, tying together many topics in biology like evolution and the immune system, and it is written in a style that makes the rather obscure discipline of parasitology truly interesting. And we still have too many books in the house, so more sales will be in the offing. ![]() If we run out of these books, remember that the paperback and Kindle editions are still in print, and I have plenty of other autographed books to buy. You can find out more about the book on at, or check out this review from Anthony Doerr in the Boston Globe, in which he calls it “quietly revolutionary.” In my biography of this scrutinized germ, I explore the origin of life, our inner ecology, and the search for life on other planets. That would be our gastrointestinal lodger, Escherichia coli, the little bug that helped build modern biology and launch the entire biotechnology industry. But rather than try to take on all of life on Earth, I chose one species–the one that we know best of all. It’s out of print, but between now and next Tuesday, it’s available for ten dollars from my Amazon store.Īgain, here’s a quick description of Microcosm: In the book, I tilt at one of my favorite windmills–the definition of life. And so ( voice turning crazy), here’s the next deal: we’ve got 8 autographed copies of the British hardback edition of Microcosm: E. There were a few cries of “Arg!” later on Facebook and Twitter, to which I responded that I still needed to deal with more books in advance of our house renovation. Last week I announced that I had 17 autographed copies of the US hardback edition of Microcosm, and in 85 minutes you folks cleared me out. ![]()
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