-
Parasite Rex
- Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 05-08-18
- Language: English
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $20.99
People who bought this also bought...
-
She Has Her Mother's Laugh
- The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Changed this strict genetic determinist's mind
- By Anonymous User on 06-11-18
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 224
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
-
Who We Are and How We Got Here
- By: David Reich
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archaeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry. In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows listeners to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, No Maps Available thru Audible
- By Jane W. on 07-15-18
-
Human Errors
- A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Most interesting, well narrated
- By N.Dryl on 05-04-18
-
The Equations of Life
- How Physics Shapes Evolution
- By: Charles S. Cockell
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid on a distant planet, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and, as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Too many equations, not enough insights
- By Alec Drumm on 09-24-18
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 619
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 554
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 557
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good story with a few slow moments
- By Amazon Customer on 05-11-14
-
She Has Her Mother's Laugh
- The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Changed this strict genetic determinist's mind
- By Anonymous User on 06-11-18
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 224
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
-
Who We Are and How We Got Here
- By: David Reich
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archaeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry. In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows listeners to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, No Maps Available thru Audible
- By Jane W. on 07-15-18
-
Human Errors
- A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Most interesting, well narrated
- By N.Dryl on 05-04-18
-
The Equations of Life
- How Physics Shapes Evolution
- By: Charles S. Cockell
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find something very much like a lady bug eating something very much like an aphid on a distant planet, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and, as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Too many equations, not enough insights
- By Alec Drumm on 09-24-18
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 619
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 554
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 557
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good story with a few slow moments
- By Amazon Customer on 05-11-14
-
The Revolutionary Genius of Plants
- A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior
- By: Stefano Mancuso
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants - a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants - makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant facts and insights
- By Elan Sun Star on 09-03-18
-
Venomous
- How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry
- By: Christie Wilcox
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
In Venomous, molecular biologist Christie Wilcox investigates venoms and the animals that use them, revealing how they work, what they do to the human body, and how they can revolutionize biochemistry and medicine today. Wilcox takes us from the coast of Indonesia to the rainforests of Peru in search of the secrets of these mysterious animals.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well worth reading
- By Paul on 12-01-16
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 926
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 860
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 851
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
what a great book!
- By allen on 05-01-18
-
Squid Empire
- The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods
- By: Danna Staaf
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Before there were mammals on land, there were dinosaurs. And before there were fish in the sea, there were cephalopods - the ancestors of modern squid and Earth's first truly substantial animals. Cephalopods became the first creatures to rise from the seafloor, essentially inventing the act of swimming. With dozens of tentacles and formidable shells, they presided over an undersea empire for millions of years. But when fish evolved jaws, the ocean's former top predator became its most delicious snack. Cephalopods had to step up their game.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
great book
- By Daniel W. Pappas on 04-19-18
-
Too Big to Walk
- The New Science of Dinosaurs
- By: Brian J. Ford
- Narrated by: Chris Courtenay
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story3 out of 5 stars 27
Ever since Jurassic Park we thought we knew how dinosaurs lived their lives. In this remarkable new book, Brian J. Ford reveals that dinosaurs were, in fact, profoundly different from what we believe, and their environment was unlike anything we have previously thought. In this meticulous and absorbing account, Ford reviews the latest scientific evidence to show that the popular accounts of dinosaurs’ lives contain ideas that are no more than convenient inventions: how dinosaurs mated, how they hunted and communicated, how they nursed their young, even how they moved....
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Ignorant, self acclaiming, blowhard!
- By William Lauffer on 07-13-18
-
This Is Your Brain on Parasites
- How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society
- By: Kathleen McAuliffe
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 727
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 666
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 667
A riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures - including humans - think, feel, and act. These tiny organisms can live only inside another animal, and, as McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating their host's behavior. Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A parasitologist view of the world
- By Colin Mc on 10-25-16
-
The Next Pandemic
- On the Front Lines Against Humankind's Gravest Dangers
- By: Ali Khan, William Patrick
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 369
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 339
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 338
An inside account of the fight to contain the world's deadliest diseases - and the panic and corruption that make them worse. The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others - and how we could do more to prevent their return. It is both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next pandemic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Many Outstanding Stories about Many Scary Microbes
- By aaron on 01-24-17
-
Quackery
- A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
- By: Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Amazon Customer on 07-10-18
-
Through Two Doors at Once
- The Elegant Experiment That Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality
- By: Anil Ananthaswamy
- Narrated by: Rene Ruiz
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
The intellectual adventure story of the "double-slit" experiment, showing how a sunbeam split into two paths first challenged our understanding of light and then the nature of reality itself - and continues to almost 200 years later. Through Two Doors at Once celebrates the elegant simplicity of an iconic experiment and its profound reach. With his extraordinarily gifted eloquence, Anil Ananthaswamy travels around the world, through history and down to the smallest scales of physical reality we have yet fathomed. It is the most fantastic voyage you can take.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent exposition of the conundrum
- By GLYNN A on 08-14-18
-
Cannibalism
- By: Bill Schutt
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 122
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I couldn't get through it
- By E. LeSaulnier on 06-06-17
-
Unthinkable
- An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains
- By: Helen Thomson
- Narrated by: Helen Thomson
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
A prize-winning journalist with a background in neuroscience, Helen Thomson spent years tracking down people who live with the world's most extraordinary neurological disorders - like a man who tried to break his back because his legs no longer felt like his own, and another who believed that he was dead for nine years. Not content to simply read about these cases on paper, Thomson reached out to 10 people with these afflictions, and they agreed to tell her their stories.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Terrible Narration Ruined This Audible Book
- By A Customer on 09-14-18
-
These Truths
- A History of the United States
- By: Jill Lepore
- Narrated by: Jill Lepore
- Length: 29 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 75
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. In riveting prose, These Truths tells the story of America, beginning in 1492, to ask whether the course of events has proven the nation's founding truths or belied them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic, Unique Performance
- By Sam Glazer on 09-28-18
Publisher's Summary
For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and the darkest shadows of science. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer takes listeners on a fantastic voyage into the secret universe of these extraordinary life forms that are not only among the most highly evolved on Earth, but make up the majority of life's diversity. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the parasite-riddled war zone of southern Sudan, Zimmer introduces an array of amazing creatures that invade their hosts, prey on them from within, and control their behavior. He also vividly describes parasites that can change DNA, rewire the brain, make men more distrustful and women more outgoing, and turn hosts into the living dead. This comprehensive audiobook brings parasites out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us all about the most fundamental survival tactics in the universe - the laws of Parasite Rex.
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
-
4.5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars12
-
4 Stars3
-
3 Stars1
-
2 Stars0
-
1 Stars0
Performance
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars13
-
4 Stars1
-
3 Stars0
-
2 Stars0
-
1 Stars0
Story
-
4.5 out of 5 stars
-
5 Stars11
-
4 Stars2
-
3 Stars1
-
2 Stars0
-
1 Stars0
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anton Quinine
- 06-17-18
I hate parasites but this book is cool
Excellent narrative animates parasites' terrifying world for both the layperson and the scientifically inclined. I found it easy to imagine the creatures and their lives thanks to clever analogies.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Farren Joy
- 10-09-18
Fascinating and Horrible
The Book is a Biological Science gem. Parasitology (minus bacteria and viruses) as the author writes about shows itself to be an understudied but essential part of living organisms and ecosystems. The book was written in 2000. I’m curious to see if any of the authors contentions about parasitology, it’s centrality and potential for scientific breakthroughs have come to pass. Great topic written is very engaging style.
My only complaint: Literally, the last few minutes of the book when the author started talking about “Gaia”. Ok I’m hoping he was using Gaia as metaphor, not teleologically. Then right after that he makes this statement. “Parasites are expert at only causing the harm that is necessary. Evolution has taught them that pointless harm will only harm themselves” What? He is giving Evolution “agency” to “teach” parasites - ok, not to much guys or you’ll hurt your host? That is disturbing sloppy to hear from a Scientist. Richard Dawkins would not be happy. Beyond the overreach on Evolution his love of his parasite subjects seems to have temporarily confused him. Parasites are fascinating, perhaps essential, but they are the bad guys. Very few people would find the definition of “Pointless Harm” from a parasite as acceptable. Studying them is essential to stop the damage they do.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Randi
- 07-07-18
A great read!
Every chapter was interesting and kept me wanting more. That parasites play a role in nature, rather than just being pests, is a concept well described in Parasite Rex. Well done!