Rating: 
Summary: Informative, Clear, insightful- biological paradigm shift...
Review: ... but written for the average joe or josephine!!!This isn't just a book about parasites- it's an introduction to a new way of perceiving the world around us, re-evaluating our place in a biological, ecological and evolutionary context... Zimmer writes with clarity and interest about the wonders of parasitic organisms- how they are a driving force in evolution, how they penetrate and manipulate their hosts, how they are not (as was thought previously) the dregs of the evolutionary process- if anything they are the engines of life. He also discusses how hosts can change against their parasites... And how parasites can change over time- for example, the mitochondria that power our cells are very similar to one of the more lethal diseases known to man, in fact, both probably evolved from the same ancestor!!!!!!!! Furthermore- mammalian fetuses could be classified, possibly as parasitic organisms- they rewire the mother's blood-sugar levels and secrete chemicals that leach away the various chemicals that the fetus demands to grow... the mother tries to combat this process as an unchecked fetus could drain her and take away her capacity to make more children. But the fetus has inherited a number of enzymes from the father that attempt to latch on and break the mother's control over her own body. These and myriad other insights into biology are woven together wonderfully. I couldn't put this book down! Zimmer travels the globe and his anecdotes concerning the various parasitologists are almost as much fun to read as the protracted discussions of the parasites. It is a budding field in biology and full of colorful characters. He also writes about parasites in films and pop culture, such as the Alien series... I couldn't imagine anyone else making a species like 'Sacculinae' (I know I miss-spelled that) come alive (they infest crabs, basically turning the crabs into castrated barnacle spawners). Zimmer does. At times it's a horrifying read: Nature doesn't love you, but she sure coddles toxoplasma and legions of other parasitic species, whose ranks are spread across every animal kingdom. Guinea worms, Sleeping sickness, Fleischmania (eats away the flesh of your face), the Candiru, the botfly- if you have a penchant for the macabre and disgusting you will not be let down. But this book isn't just to disgust and delight readers... It's illuminating and clear- approachable in a way that very few scientific-works-for-laypeople are. I can't wait to get my hands on other books by Mr. Zimmer. If Parasite Rex is any indication... 5 enthusiastic stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Keep Whistling!
Review: Almost everywhere you see more reasons to think that the world is going to hell in the old proverbial handbasket: global warming, cretin politicians, mad scientists with more schemes for better ways to destroy us and people who blow you up just because you don't shake your head yes or no at exactly the same time they do. This book will add yet another dimension to your worry. After thumbing through all 298 pages you will have a pretty good idea of what waits to glide through your membranes, colonize your nervous system, gunk up the striations in your muscles, chew through the jelly of your eyes, swim in the fishbowl of your brain or perhaps has already gotten to work and is doing these and other nasty things even as you read. Still, you have to hand it to all those sci-fi-looking worms and germs and viruses: they're pretty clever, and if you're a religious type, you might even see the many thumbs of Elohim at work--especially when author Carl Zimmer tells us that parasites just might be the arcane engine of evolution, and that adapting to parasites might be the real reason that normal gals pick guys with regular features and biceps, in the same way that hens pick roosters for the redness of their combs. The one fact that has stuck with me after reading this book, however, is that Zimmer tells us that Toxoplasma "changes the personality of its human hosts, bringing different shifts to men and women. Men become less willing to submit to the moral standards of a community....Women become more outgoing and warmhearted..." This particular parasitic ghoulie can be easily picked up from the family cat, folks. In fact many of you reading my words are already infected. Makes us wonder how much of human personality is explainable by the number of parasites we unknowingly host. Perhaps that sudden yen for a kosher dill pickle in the middle of the night might have a creeping cause, or even that get-well party for the associate that you don't particularly care for, the idea of which suddenly formed itself in a kind of Eureka-moment in the brain, might be tracable to the hormonal disruptors of something more akin to the arthropods than the angels. Yuck!
Rating:
Summary: Zimmer's book is fascinating
Review: Flukes that can cleverly induce their snail and piscine hosts right into a hungry bird's beak; wasps that lay their eggs inside caterpillars and spiders, forcing these unfortunate hosts to nurture the wasp larvae after they hatch; and yes, tiny parasites that can manipulate and outwit human immune and nervous systems -- all to continue the parasite's life cycle ... at our expense.
Zimmer intensified my interest in parasitology when I read his Discover magazine article "Do Parasites Rule the World?" This led me to his "Parasite Rex" which more comprehensively explores the dominating role that parasites play in global ecosystems.
Organisms that biologists had long regarded as nothing more than a freeloading nuisance have since been found to control not only their hosts' behavior but to shape the evolution of organisms as complex as human beings. Zimmer provides a generous supply of well-researched examples and anecdotes on the various types of parasites and their behavior as well as the different and ingenious ways parasites can overcome their hosts' defenses.
And once this reality threshold has been established, Zimmer examines others' treatment of parasites in the works of science fiction, some eerily lifelike, others laughable, but each in its own right fascinatingly familiar for those courageous enough to have taken interest in the biology of these highly underrated, often-scorned creatures.
Rating:
Summary: nothing less than classic!!!!
Review: Gripping,fascinating,mind-boggling,frightening and the adjectives can go on till infinity.One thing's for sure,this is probably the best book i've ever read in any category.Parasite Rex has made me stop and seriously consider my role and relative importance on this planet.Parasites are definitely creatures of intelligence and savvy even by some humans'standards.The way Mr.Zimmer expounds such a subject with such ease is a major credit to his communication skills.His analogies are so on point that you can easily see yourself inside an organism and watching the action unfold like a ringside seat at a big match.If all writers could simplify very technical material like Zimmer has,who knows some of us lay people could become scholars without having to go to college.For those who scoff at the thought that creatures so tiny can determinedly invade,alter,control and manipulate from organisms to entire eco-systems i dare you to pick up a copy of'PR'and be prepared to reshape your whole outlook on life.I give'Parasite Rex'five stars only because i can't give it more.Thank you so much Mr.Zimmer!!!!
Rating:
Summary: an adventure and journey into a world we can hardly imagine
Review: I was drawn to this book orignially out of the idea that things so small can cause so much damage and or alter larger animals in ways some would find hard to believe. One of the previous reviewers mentioned something about sacculina (a parasitic barnicle that attacks crabs). Reading about how sacculina castrates its host and makes it care for its young was one of the things that got me interested in reading this fascinating book. Sacculina is only one of many fascinating parasites discussed however. Many are familiar with parasites such as cuckcoos, tape worms and trichinella but few have heard of parasites such as the lancet fluke and even fewer are familiar with its life cycle and what it does to its host. In terms of the spooky element, I think Dicrocoelium dendriticum (the lancet fluke) ranks as one of the top villains given in the book. The lancet fluke has three different hosts, namely the snail, the ant and cow or other grazers. As an adult, the lancet fluke spends its time in the gut of a cow where it lays its eggs. The eggs are then deposited on the ground with the cow's feces then snails eat the eggs which hatch in its intestines. The baby flukes bore through the snail's gut emerging from the snails slimy body and onto the ground where they attract the attention of ants. The ants eat these slime balls and become infected. The flukes then make the ants climb up the highest blade of grass they can find and lock their mandibles onto the top of the blade hanging until they are eaten by a grazer to continue its life cycle. There are a few interesting details which I intentionally left out. Only one parasite in the book made me cringe and that was with candiru. Candiru is a thin fish found in the rivers of Latin America. Woe to the unfortunate soul who happens to urinate in a river in the presence of candiru because it will detect the odor of urine and ram itself into the victim's urethra (male or female) and lodge itself there with its teeth. Candiru is virtually impossible to remove once inside the urethra. Humans are not candiru's natural hosts however, it attacks them as a mistake. The book also expounds on how and why parasites have a vital and critical role to play in ecology. Examples of bad things happening because certain parasites were eliminated is discussed.
Rating:
Summary: The Gospel According to Parasites
Review: In the beginning there were hydrothermal vents, and they said, "Let there be life." And life was formed and it was good. But life was lonely, so the vents said, "let there be parasites." But the parasites smote much of the other life akin to a great flood sweeping across the land. After 40 days and 40 nights, life and the new parasitic life form began to play the arms race game of the Red Queen and that was good. And other life begat more other life through cloning of their DNAs, but reproduction through cloning once again allowed parasites to gain dominion over the land and the seas, so other life invented immunology and other life invented sex, in self defense. And so it went.
And it came to pass that there were many other life forms, but none existed without parasites, and no parasites existed without them, and the battle of the Red Queen escalated and flowed, lacking much ebb. As a parasite gained dominance over one species, other species proliferated, providing separation and new speciation. The peacock grew seemingly unnecessary featherages, the bower birds built elaborate seduction altars, and all the creatures created pecking orders and heirarchies. And so it went.
And it came to pass the parasites evolved elaborate life cycles involving different life forms and serial hosts. In each host they cast spells which they called "better living through chemistry." Some intermediate hosts became mere parasite hotels, hypnotized into helping the parasite find its next host. The more vicious parasites, in error, killed their hosts, thereby they also died. The wiser ones preferred slavery i.e., how to get the most use and nutrition out of their host without killing it. Both the parasites and their more able hosts went to absurd extremes, each trying to outwit the other, in building Rube-Goldberg defense strategies. One minor two-legged (called "human") species went to such ridiculous extremes as to evolve elaborate cognition in order to best the parasites. They became so bright, they figured many things out about their world, yet these upright walkers were still not cognizant of the prominent role parasites had played in human evolution, and their dominance. Alas, for every member of their bigger group, mammals, there were thousand of groups of parasites. The parasites had come to make up the majority of the creatures on earth. And so it is.
And the creatures that multiplied across the face of the earth continue to thrive. And the hydrothermal vents who observe all of the Red Queen game say, "it is good," and they rest.
Rating: 
Summary: An alternative look at ecology
Review: Looking at nature, we see relationships and hierarchies. We see plankton at the bottom of the food chain and ourselves at the top, graveyard worms notwithstanding. We see a cycle where each member specie contributes something to its environment; under this worldview, we see parasites as anomalies, and disgusting ones at that. Carl Zimmer thinks it's time we changed our attitudes towards creatures we label parasites. How can parasites be anomalous when the term applies to three quarters of all species? In a way, they are the chief participants in all ecosystems. And when we eliminate a certain class of parasites, such as worms and flukes, there are unintended consequences.
For instance internal parasites might help prime our immune system. Population studies in Venezuela have shown there is an inverse relationship between the presence of parasites and the occurence of allergies. Richer segments of the population eat better, cleaner food but suffer more of cat and dog allegies, while the poorer segments are more afflicted with intestinals worms but suffer less from allergies.
Zimmer in addition describes the life cycles of many parasites. Some of the more spectacular cases seem to jump out of science fiction movies and novels, such as the little worms that make fish jump around the surface more than they would normally, increasing the odds of being eaten by a sea bird, thus carrying the worm to the next host in its life cycle. Studies have shown that similar worms in humans make men more reckless and women more promiscuous. In other words, mind control by bugs. Ugh.
On the down side, I would have enjoyed seeing a few more figures, more lists, more statistics. The book is too anecdotal for a hard science book, but this is a minor point. All and all, a great little book, though it might be best to avoid discussing it at the dinner table.
Rating:
Summary: Hippity hop! Where to stop?
Review: Once considered a "degenerate" form of life, parasites are being seen as important indicators of how evolution has progressed over 4 billion years. Zimmer credits them with being the driving force for biological diversity. He substantiates this claim with a sweeping, evocative survey of what is known today about parasites. That, he regretfully concedes, is little enough. What is known is that many early conceptions about parasites needed to be thrown aside as more information about this highly adaptable and widely variable range of organisms emerges.
While we may recoil at the term "parasite", Zimmer identifies but one villain in this book. Ray Lankester, a devoted Edwardian-era evolutionist, postulated that parasites were a "regressive" form of organism. He thought they shed evolutionary advantages as they simplified their bodies through their life cycles. Lankester thus set the tone for generations - biologists avoided studying parasites as offering no additional information revealing evolution's processes. Zimmer explains that since parasites are predators, it was thought they ought to follow the patterns of other predators - stalking prey like lions, or following scent gradients like sharks.
Instead, as more about them came to light, it was revealed how adaptive parasites are. Some, in fact, have developed the talent of making "prey" come to them. One fluke invades a snail early in its career. In an intermediate, but distinctive form, it then moves to an ant. Residing in the ant's brain, at some point it directs the ant to climb a grass stalk. There it waits for the grass, along with the ant and itself, to be eaten by a cow. The fluke cruises through the cow's stomach before taking up residence in the liver as adults, yet another body form. When the eggs are produced, they return to the intestinal tract to be later deposited on the ground, awaited by the snails. Looking at each phase, residing in a different host, you would be inclined to see it as a separate species.
This note is but one of the endless chorus of parasite adaptations Zimmer relates in this excellent book. He joins the refrain of older scientists lamenting the lack of upcoming researchers needed in parasite studies. Unlike the animals we see around us, most parasites have astonishingly varied body forms as they go through the phases of their life cycles. For years, this catalog of body plans was thought to display different species. Only recently has it been demonstrated that these creatures changed shape and function dramatically as they changed living environments. Identifying each stage, the invader's function there, the impact on the host and other elements requires long, patient and dedicated work.
Those of us in the urban world think we can keep parasites at a distance, flooding our farms and wetlands with chemicals to fend them off. This is false confidence, Zimmer reminds us. Parasites are the most adaptable forms of life on the planet. They are as likely to promote change as respond to it. Zimmer cites Robin Dunbar's thesis that grooming for parasites ultimately allowed humans to develop speech and language. He explains how our immune systems and parasites enter a modus vivendi that allows the parasite and host alike to survive. Recognising how that process evolved could lead to better coexistence through "taming" the invaders.
Coexistence with these minute creatures turns out to have many implications. It's now clear that the development of agriculture made human society vulnerable to invaders unknown on the savannah. Human bodies became less robust and mortality rates rose. How far back in time have they had influences on us and what are those? Zimmer suggests that some monkeys have developed "manners" in resource or mate competition. They scream and cavort, but don't scratch or bite rivals for fear of bloodworm infection. Others use particular leaves to clear digestive tracts of infestations. We hear of researchers seeking "genes for" schizophrenia, homosexuality, even "gods". Zimmer thinks we're looking in the wrong place. Instead, he urges, we should identify the "flukes for" these and other aspects of human behaviour and form. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: Just When You Thought it Was Safe.......
Review: Parasitology is a subject that makes the average person blanch. When I was at the University of Florida many years ago I would sometimes get into a discussion of the more gruesome aspects with another person who was interested in the biology of parasites. In the process we could easily totally gross out any others listening. Still, as Carl Zimmer points out in "Parasite Rex" parasites are the norm, not the exception and that should be a major reason to read about them.
Zimmer is an excellent writer on popular biological science and this book shows his talent well. In nearly 250 pages of text he describes the fascinating and often disturbing world of parasites, from blood flukes in humans to crustaceans that eat fish tongues and then act as a replacement. Wherever you look there are parasitic worms, arthropods, and even birds. Blood-sucking, organ-destroying and skin-eating creatures exist in amazing variety and in some areas cause untold misery. The average person maintains a host of relatively benign creatures, some of which can become problems under the right circumstances. In addition, a person can easily pick up some much nastier critters (such as malarial parasites) while traveling, or even in one's own back yard, where parasitic worms and protozoans may be lurking. Hookworm used to be a major problem in some parts of the American South and filariasis was even briefly a problem in Charleston, South Carolina (a nasty result of the slave trade). These days modern airplanes can transport parasites in or on their hosts quite far from their place of origin and in a very short time.
That we have a morbid fascination for such creatures is well shown by various science fiction movies and TV shows where the "Alien" and fungal pathogens become objects of terror. We should also be fascinated by the often bizarre lives and shapes of real parasites and parasitoids (those that normally kill their hosts) on the planet that we share with them
Not for the squeamish, this book should still be read by anyone who wants to be knowledgeable about the subject. You never know, it could help the reader avoid a nasty problem, while serving as a really good read at the same time!
Rating:
Summary: The world within
Review: There is a theory that our universe is merely a speck in a larger universe and that each atom within us is actually an entire universe unto itself. While I have yet to find the book that will tell me the truth about the many Milky Ways my body may harbor, I have found one that tells me about a different kind of universe my body does harbor.
The world of parasites [outside of bacteria and viruses]was always, in my mind, a relatively small one. A tapeworm here, a tarantula fighting wasp there, an amoeba or two with hostile intent. NOT 200,000 different parasitic wasps laying eggs in numerous hapless hosts destined to become little more than a buffet line. A frog was always, to me, a single hopping, croaking, ugly creature that caused warts if you picked it up. NOT a veritable hotel for parasites. The world of parasites is braoder and more interesting than I had ever dreamed. Carl Zimmer does a wonderful job of bringing that world into view.
He describes the stupendously large number of parasites, how they work, what they do to their host, how they control their host, often totally controlling, and how their host fights back [though I would have prefered a bit more detail on this last point, if only to sleep better at night].
He also does a great job of remembering that even though he may have told me that Plasmodium is the parasite that causes malaria, it can be quite helpful if he again reminds me when he brings up Plasmodium fifty pages later; thus saving me the hassle of looking back through the book to remember what horrible thing it is that Plasmodium does.
As wonderful as the book is, it does have a few small faults. Early prognositcation about man as the political parasite is, at the very least, premature. Personally,I believe in saving the moralizing for after the juicy bits. Should that actually have been of interest to the readers of this particular book, then I felt it was noticeably underdeveloped as a concept.
Carl also gets a little bit soppy at the end as he tells us how wonderful and important parasites actually are. Not that I miss his point on the role he proposes,with convincing force, that parasites assume in the overall vortex of life. He articulately elaborates on fact and theory about the role parasites play; keeping species populations in check, symbiotic functions and, most remarkably, evolution [even of intellegence and languge]. Its just that, as he pleads for us to understand what important things these wee little creatures do for us and the world around us, I can't help but recall his stories of maggots eating their host from the inside [saving the critical bits for last] or parasites causing otherwise happy fish to swim upside down on the surface of the water crying out to local predators: 'Eat me, Eat me'. I still get a bit too uneasy about the barnacle that runs roots throughout a crab's body prior to castrating it to really feel as cuddly about these insidious little mischief makers as it appears that Carl does.
What I do get is an awesome sense that there is a whole world out there that I'm missing; a very important and interesting one. I begin to wonder whether my genes are here to serve me or whether I'm little more than a convenient vessel to serve them. And if that's not eerie enough, he's got me thinking that we may not actually be at the top of the food chain; maybe not even close. Ouch!
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