Comments on: Book review – Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live

By: Book review – A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us About the Destiny of the Human Species | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 16:32:18 +0000

[…] microbes. Perhaps Dunn did not want to retread the many examples he discussed in his excellent Never Home Alone of humans depending on microbes and fungi in their very homes. And when you ask me which species I […]

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By: Book review – Virusphere: From Common Colds to Ebola Epidemics: Why We Need the Viruses that Plague Us | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 13:07:47 +0000

[…] But foremost it is an opportunity for Ryan to entertain the reader with facts and first-hand encounters with viral diseases: measles, flu, polio, norovirus, smallpox, hantavirus, HIV, Ebola, rabies. Some of these are the subject of dedicated books (e.g. Virus Hunt: The Search for the Origin of HIV/Aids, Ebola: Profile of a Killer Virus, and my review of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic), but in case you want to read just one book, Ryan has got you covered. It is not all horror stories though. His message that the vast majority of viruses are innocuous to humans and vital components of organisms and ecosystems is echoed by Rob Dunn regarding bacteria and insects (see my review of Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of…). […]

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By: Book review – Virusphere: From Common Colds to Ebola Epidemics: Why We Need the Viruses that Plague Us | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 13 May 2019 08:56:58 +0000

[…] But foremost it is an opportunity for Ryan to entertain the reader with facts and first-hand encounters with viral diseases: measles, flu, polio, norovirus, smallpox, hantavirus, HIV, Ebola, rabies. Some of these are the subject of dedicated books (e.g. Virus Hunt: The Search for the Origin of HIV/Aids, Ebola: Profile of a Killer Virus, and Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic), but in case you want to read just one book, Ryan has got you covered. It is not all horror stories though. His message that the vast majority of viruses are innocuous to humans and vital components of organisms and ecosystems is echoed by Rob Dunn regarding bacteria and insects (see my review of Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of…). […]

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By: Book review – Plight of the Living Dead: What Real-Life Zombies Reveal About Our World – and Ourselves | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 08:27:09 +0000

[…] If the parasite needs to complete its lifecycle in another organism, say a bird, you can count on it changing its host into a suicidal creature that wil make sure to be eaten by that bird. And then there are the parasites that infect colonies of social insects and manipulate not just their host, but other colony members as well, sometimes turning sister against sister in an orgy of bloodshed. There seems to be no end to the cruel and inventive ways in which parasites will exploit and manipulate their hosts. We might not have worms in our eyeballs, fungi growing up our brains, or giant larvae slowly eating our organs to then burst out of our chests. However. As also mentioned by Dunn when shortly discussing Toxoplasma gondii (a parasite of cats), we humans are not exempt (see Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of…). […]

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