About this title: We treat disease as our enemy, and germs and infections as things we battle. But what if we've been giving them a bum rap? In this witty, engaging book, evolutionary biologist Zuk makes us rethink our instincts as she argues that disease is our partner, not our foe.From the earliest days of life on earth - parasites spurred the creation of complex life forms - disease has evolved alongside us, becoming not only natural but essential to our health. Drawing on the latest research and most unusual studies, Zuk explains the role of disease in answering a fascinating range of questions: Why do men ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harvest Books
Date Published: 2008-05-12
ISBN-13:9780156034685ISBN:0156034689
Description: Good. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Pre-release book with plain cover and publisher stickers. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
"This books has parts that are so full of fascinating information I felt if it was 2000 pages I could read the entire thing in one night. Unfortunately, it also has parts that are so dry and flat that it ended up taking me weeks to get through it. It started out as a book I would recommend to nearly everyone interested in disease, and ends up a book I can only recommend to those few people I know would push through the dry sections to finish.
I had hoped for a lot more practical information about just generally feeling at ease with our place in a complex interplay of competing life, and in the opening of the book she does offer a fair bit of that, but the net result of the book is me just generally being creeped out by how much stuff is out there eager to feed off me or kill me.
Adding to that a strong anti-male theme throughout the book which barely tries to cover itself up and I found by the end I disliked the author a fair bit. I'm unclear what her past is, or what she's gone through as a female trying to make it in science, but i come off with the sense it hasn't been easy. Her voice echoes a pitiful theme seen in so many popular sitcoms these days of nearly retarded male making more work for the enlightened, calm, focused female who keeps it all together.
"This is the main book of the moment. Marlene Zuk is an evolutionary biologist and is making all kinds of fascinating connections between diseases and why they exist in us. For instance, cystic fibrosis which eventually means an early death or lung transplant for most of its sufferers who have inherited two copies of the gene, may have arisen because those with (one copy of) the gene are much less susceptible to losing liquid in a cholera attack. And its the loss of fluid that causes death very quickly in cholera.
I enjoyed the chapter on sex for procreation being a reaction to bacteria and found the last chapter on whether we truly own our personalities or if, at least some of the time, they are either a reaction to or manipulated by one of the bugs that inhabit us."
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