This book is able to shake our idea of man as the king of nature. A king is good if the parasites living in him can control his health and behavior! However, their power extends literally to all living beings, including the parasites themselves: others can live inside some.
This book is able to shake our idea of man as the king of nature. A king is good if the parasites living in him can control his health and behavior! However, their power extends literally to all living beings, including the parasites themselves: others can live inside some. So the author’s statement «the science of life is basically parasitology» does not seem to be an exaggeration. Science does not know how many species of parasites exist on Earth, it is only clear that they are the majority on Earth. They have the most complex adaptation mechanisms and may have been one of the main driving forces of evolution. Journalist Carl Zimmer, one of the best popularizers of science in the USA, tells about all this in an extremely thorough and fascinating way. Although this reading is not for the faint of heart. The vividly described details of the life of the «heroes» of the book are often not inferior to chilling Hollywood horror films.
ALPINA NON-FIXION, DYNASTY, 362 p.