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Chargement... Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are (2007)par Marlene Zuk
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. This was fairly interesting, but it got to be a bit much by the end. I read this in German, and I suspect that the style problems that caused me to mark it down somewhat are due to the translation. There are also several places where a negative sentence only makes sense in context if it should be positive. The 'breezy convenient feeling' and 'sense of humor' mentioned by other reviewers don't really come across. There are several places where a sentence seems to be fully out of place, but I suspect that the connection is actually there in English but the idiom either is not translatable or not recognized by the translator. Or perhaps these don't come over because the translator is taking the whole thing too seriously. There's a huge ick factor in this book, which deals in worms and other parasites of humanity, as well as the evolution of immune systems and infectious agents. The science is fascinating, and the conclusions amply supported by Darwinian reasoning. Perhaps we've been too hasty in trying to rid ourselves of every possible disease and parasitic hanger-on. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
According to evolutionary biologist Zuk, germs and disease don't deserve their bad rep. Drawing on recent research and her own studies, she explains why disease is mankind's best friend, indeed the key that jump-started the entire evolutionary explosion. Along the way, she answers questions many of us dare not ask, such as: Why don't male birds have penises? Why are we attracted to our mates? Zuk also describes the function of STDs and explains why women live longer than men. Her wide-ranging sampling of stories from the natural will appeal to everyone who enjoys popular science.--From publisher description. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)616.07Technology Medicine and health Diseases Pathology; Diseases; Treatment PathologyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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The first 80 pages drag, and are covered both more interestingly and in more detail in hundreds of other popular science books. Also, the topics in these chapters (heterozygote advantage, hygeine hypothesis) have little to do with Zuk's central themes. Theis portion of the book also is infested with what Zuk seems to think are wry little asides, which grate terribly. The concluding paragraphs are interesting, but lack the compulsive readable of the earlier chapters. ( )