"Based on a wildly popular Atlantic article: an astonishing investigation into the world of microbes, and the myriad ways they control how other creatures -- including humans -- act, feel, and think As we are now discovering, parasites -- microbes that cannot thrive and reproduce without another organism as a host -- are shockingly sophisticated and extraordinarily powerful. In fact, a plethora of parasites affect our behavior in ways we have barely...

"Malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history, and its 10,000-year relationship to primates can teach us why it will be one of the most serious threats to humanity in the 21st century. In this pathbreaking book Loretta Cormier integrates a wide range of data from molecular biology, ethnoprimatology, epidemiology, ecology, anthropology, and other fields to reveal the intimate relationships between culture and environment that shape...

"Interactions between competitors, predators and their prey have traditionally been viewed as the foundation of community structure. Parasites - long ignored in community ecology - are now recognized as playing an important part in influencing species interactions and consequently affecting ecosystem function. Parasitism can interact with other ecological drivers, resulting in both detrimental and beneficial effects on biodiversity and ecosystem health....