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Book Cover
Book
Author McAuliffe, Kathleen, author

Title This Is Your Brain on Parasites : How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society / Kathleen McAuliffe

Copies

LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
 Bangor Pub. Lib. Stacks  612.8.M119t    AVAILABLE  
 Maine State Lib. Stacks  OFFSITE 612.8 M117t 2016    AVAILABLE  
Phys Descr 268 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates ; 24 cm
Note Text in English
Includes bibliographical references and index
Contents Before parasites were cool -- Hitching a ride -- Zombified -- Hypnotized -- Dangerous liaisons -- Gut feelings -- My microbes made me fat -- Healing instinct -- The forgotten emotion -- Parasites and prejudice -- Parasites and piety -- The geography of thought
Summary "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 begun to understand. In this mind-bending book, McAuliffe reveals the eons-old war between parasites and other creatures that is playing out in our very own bodies. And more surprising still, she uncovers the decisive role that parasites may have played in the rise and demise of entire civilizations. Our obsession with cleanliness and our experience of disgust are both evolutionary tools for avoiding infection, but they evolved differently for different populations. Political, social, and religious differences among societies may be caused, in part, by the different parasites that prey on us. In the tradition of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish, This Is Your Brain on Parasites is both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human."-- Provided by publisher
Note "An Eamon Dolan book."
Subject Nervous system -- Diseases
Parasitology
Microbiology
Mesh Subject Central Nervous System Diseases
Parasitology
Microbiology
Other Form Electronic version: McAuliffe, Kathleen. This is your brain on parasites. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 9780544193222 (DLC) 2016009925 (OCoLC)942611342
OCLC # 941714642
ISBN # 9780544192225
0544192222