by Marlene Zuk (Author)

We treat disease as our enemy. Germs and infections are things we battle. But what if we've been giving them a bum rap?

Front Jacket

Zuk's book makes disease scintillating, wryly amusing and even sexy. Her enthusiasm and a hundred examples propel the reader to a deeper understanding of the nature of life.--Randolph M. Nesse, author of Why We Get Sick
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 die younger than women? Why are we attracted to our mates? Why does your average male bird not have a penis? Why do we--as well as insects, birds, pigs, cows, goats, and even plants--get STDs? Why do vultures have yellow heads and roosters have red wattles? Why do we have sex at all, rather than simply splitting off copies of ourselves like certain geckoes? And how is our obsession with cleanliness making us sicker?
Using her own work on sexual selection as well as an amazing sampling of stories from the natural world, Zuk makes us reconsider the fearful parasite. "

Back Jacket

An NPR Best Science Book of 2007

"Fascinating."--Natalie Angier, The New York Times

MARLENE ZUK is a professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, where she studies parasites and behavior in a variety of animals. She is the author of Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can t Learn about Sex from Animals. She lives in Riverside, California.

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