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Product Identifiers
PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
ISBN-100544192222
ISBN-139780544192225
eBay Product ID (ePID)215938314
Product Key Features
Book TitleThis Is Your Brain on Parasites : How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society
Number of Pages288 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicLife Sciences / Microbiology, Neurology
Publication Year2016
IllustratorYes
GenreScience, Medical
AuthorKathleen Mcauliffe
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.1 in
Item Weight19 Oz
Item Length9 in
Item Width6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2016-002949
Reviews"If you've ever doubted the power of microbes to shape society and offer us a grander view of life, read on and find yourself duly impressed."- BookForum "A fascinating account of an extraordinary suite of biological phenomena, only recently come to light and proving that given enough time and enough evolving species to work with, natural selection can accomplish almost anything." - Edward O. Wilson , Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, author of Consilience . "This book has all the elements of a crime thriller: violence, blood, gore, race and sex. But here the criminals are parasites. McAuliffe tells a vivid and sometimes horrifying tale of the hijackers that control our brains and our behaviour. In company with the best science writers, she shows us that reality can be way more interesting than fiction." - Valerie Curtis , Director of the Environmental Health Group of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of Don't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat "Be prepared to throw away all your preconceptions about the order of life. Humorous, inspiring and macabre--this is infectious reading in the tradition of giants like Robert S. Desowitz and Jared Diamond." - Michael A Huffman , associate professor, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University "From start to finish, [McAuliffe] spins a consistently engrossing tale of invasive creatures that can alter your behavior and outlook, depress your cognitive functioning, and even make you more violent or sexually aggressive." -- Heather Havrilesky, Book Forum, "A fascinating account of an extraordinary suite of biological phenomena, only recently come to light and proving that given enough time and enough evolving species to work with, natural selection can accomplish almost anything." - Edward O. Wilson , Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, author of Consilience . "This book has all the elements of a crime thriller: violence, blood, gore, race and sex. But here the criminals are parasites. McAuliffe tells a vivid and sometimes horrifying tale of the hijackers that control our brains and our behaviour. In company with the best science writers, she shows us that reality can be way more interesting than fiction." - Valerie Curtis , Director of the Environmental Health Group of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of Don't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat "Be prepared to throw away all your preconceptions about the order of life. Humorous, inspiring and macabre--this is infectious reading in the tradition of giants like Robert S. Desowitz and Jared Diamond." - Michael A Huffman , associate professor, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University , "If you've ever doubted the power of microbes to shape society and offer us a grander view of life, read on and find yourself duly impressed."- BookForum "A fascinating account of an extraordinary suite of biological phenomena, only recently come to light and proving that given enough time and enough evolving species to work with, natural selection can accomplish almost anything." - Edward O. Wilson , Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, author of Consilience . "This book has all the elements of a crime thriller: violence, blood, gore, race and sex. But here the criminals are parasites. McAuliffe tells a vivid and sometimes horrifying tale of the hijackers that control our brains and our behaviour. In company with the best science writers, she shows us that reality can be way more interesting than fiction." - Valerie Curtis , Director of the Environmental Health Group of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of Don't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat "Be prepared to throw away all your preconceptions about the order of life. Humorous, inspiring and macabre--this is infectious reading in the tradition of giants like Robert S. Desowitz and Jared Diamond." - Michael A Huffman , associate professor, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University "From start to finish, [McAuliffe] spins a consistently engrossing tale of invasive creatures that can alter your behavior and outlook, depress your cognitive functioning, and even make you more violent or sexually aggressive." -- Heather Havrilesky, Book Forum
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal616.96
SynopsisA riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures--including humans--think, feel, and act. These tiny organisms can only live inside another animal, and as McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating their host's behavior. Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey. With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them. We humans are hardly immune to the profound influence of parasites. Organisms we pick up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality traits and contributing to recklessness, impulsivity--even suicide. Microbes in our gut affect our emotions and the very wiring of our brains. Germs that cause colds and flu may alter our behavior even before symptoms become apparent. Parasites influence our species on the cultural level too. As McAuliffe documents, a subconscious fear of contagion impacts virtually every aspect of our lives, from our sexual attractions and social circles to our morals and political views. Drawing on a huge body of research, she argues that our dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites--and a double-edged sword. The horror and revulsion we feel when we come in contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for civilization, but may also be the basis for major divisions in societies that persist to this day. In the tradition of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish, This Is Your Brain on Parasites is both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human., Based on her hugely popular Atlantic article, science writer Kathleen McAuliffe reveals the myriad ways parasites control how humans act, feel, and think.
LC Classification NumberRC346.M36 2016
