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A Planet of Viruses

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A Planet of Viruses

Author:   Carl Zimmer
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
ISBN:  

9780226983363


Pages:   122
Publication Date:   May 2012
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release.
Online Price $18.45 RRP $20.95 Save $2.50 (12.00%) Quantity:  
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Overview

Viruses are the smallest living things known to science, yet they hold the entire planet in their sway. We are most familiar with the viruses that give us colds or the flu, but viruses also cause a vast range of other diseases, including one disorder that makes people sprout branch-like growths as if they were trees. Viruses have been a part of our lives for so long, in fact, that we are actually part virus: the human genome contains more DNA from viruses than our own genes. Meanwhile, scientists are discovering viruses everywhere they look: in the soil, in the ocean, even in caves miles underground. This fascinating book explores the hidden world of viruses - a world that we all inhabit. Here Carl Zimmer, popular science writer and author of Discover magazine's award-winning blog The Loom, presents the latest research on how viruses hold sway over our lives and our biosphere, how viruses helped give rise to the first life-forms, how viruses are producing new diseases, how we can harness viruses for our own ends, and how viruses will continue to control our fate for years to come. In this eye-opening tour of the frontiers of biology, where scientists are expanding our understanding of life as we know it, we learn that some treatments for the common cold do more harm than good; that the world's oceans are home to an astonishing number of viruses; and that the evolution of HIV is now in overdrive, spawning more mutated strains than we care to imagine. The New York Times Book Review calls Carl Zimmer as fine a science essayist as we have. A Planet of Viruses is sure to please his many fans and further enhance his reputation as one of America's most respected and admired science journalists.

Full Product Details

Author:   Carl Zimmer
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication:   United States
ISBN:  

9780226983363


ISBN 10:   0226983366
Pages:   122
Publication Date:   May 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release.

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Reviews

In A Planet of Viruses, science writer Carl Zimmer accomplishes in a mere 100 pages what other authors struggle to do in 500: He reshapes our understanding of the hidden realities at the core of everyday existence.... Zimmer's train of thought is concise and illuminating. (Washington Post)


Author Information

Carl Zimmer is a lecturer at Yale University, where he teaches writing about science and the environment. He is the author of numerous books, including Microcosm; Parasite Rex; Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea; At the Water's Edge; and Soul Made Flesh. His numerous essays and articles on the life sciences have appeared in the pages of the New York Times, Scientific American, Discover, Time, Science, Popular Science, and National Geographic. His work has been anthologized in both The Best American Science Writing and The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

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