Plight of the Living deadjam

There are way such parasites than I thought possible throughout the animal kingdom some of them have even complex life cycles Simon does a creditable job describing why this sort of behavior may have evolved explains how it works in a great style I highly recommend this as an audiobook as the narrator really caught the tone of his writing made it an absolute joy to listen to. Plight of the Living deadblue This is informative funny The first chapter The First Rule of Zombification You Do Not Want to Be a ZombieWasps aka the flying middle fingers of the animal kingdom prove that evolution is the meanest and most beautiful thing the world has ever known How elegant engaging The early chapters discuss the zombifiers.

Plight of the Living deadjammer

Thankful for 0143131419 Interesting and gross 4. Plight of the Living deadblue 5 0143131419 This was a very good pop science book about parasites that manipulate their hosts and environment to thrive and reproduce The tactics these parasites Simon refers to them as zombifiers use to survive shows how nature Nature truly is majestic and terrifying at the same time. Plight of the Living deadball Simon starts with cases most similar to what we think of when we think of zombies some external force invading a host and taking over its mind Simon gives the example of wasps nature s assholes and fungi that infect ants In both those cases the parasite directly alters the physiology of its victim to behave in a way that suits the reproductive needs of the attacker In the wasps case it is turning caterpillars into guardians over wasp larva and passively letting said larva eat them In the case of the fungus the ant is completely taken over from stem to stern and directed to a place that will allow the fungus to spread its spores and infect other ants The complexity of what these parasites do it astounding and horrifying at the same time heck.

Plight of the Living deadjammer

But because we can t really detect those areas of sense such as a bat s sonar before the advent of certain types of machines we are likely missing whole swathes of the world where parasites are influencing their victims There is still a lot we don t know about how parasites might influence their hosts but what we do know is fascinating. Plight of the Living deadcenter The book read very quickly Simon as a good knack for explaining the many zombifying behaviors without getting too deep into the weeds of the process He also does a good job drawing on past examples and contrasting them with whatever new section he is discussing It gives the book a feel of being one cohesive read instead of siloed chapters that have little bearing on each other All in all a very good introductory book to the amazing world of behavior altering parasites 0143131419 The jewel wasp did WHAT to the cockroach Holy guacamole Sort of saw the yartsa gunbu bit coming.

Plight of the Living deadkjv

Matt Simon is a journalist who writes Wired Sciences Absurd Creature of the Week column He has also edited Wireds This Day in Tech blog which was compiled into the book Mad Science and writes a second column called Fantastically Wrong that explores the strangest mistakes in folklore and science He lives in San Francisco Matt Simon is a journalist who writes Wired Science s Absurd Creature of the Week column He has also edited Wired s This Day in Tech blog which was compiled into the book Mad Science and writes a second column called Fantastically Wrong that explores the strangest mistakes in folklore and science He lives in San Francisco site_link Horrors If this book wasn t so informative unique and well written I d say skip it it ll give you nightmares But it s vastly entertaining and the facts of life about the birds and the bees as well as the body snatching fungi the brain surgeon wasps and the mind controlling caterpillars are like nothing I ve ever read before Not sold on his final conclusions that free will doesnt exist but it s uncomfortable icing on a disturbing book so ok I won t hold it against the author. Plight of the Living deadkids And did I mention that as horrifying as this book is it s laugh out loud funny 0143131419 When I first read about Toxoplasma I was horrified fascinated This is a well documented parasite that needs to breed by going through both a rat cat so it makes rats go looking for cats Of course this behavior isn t good for the rat but the parasite doesn t care It s used that vehicle long enough needs to trade in on a new model Woah How weird I thought Toxo was unique No In fact their victims the life cycles but as it goes on he describes about the mechanisms involved they seem too complicated How could something like this have evolved Then he finally gets into the Umwelt how we perceive think of the real world our environment it becomes clear It often takes an amazingly small amount of work on the part of the parasite to drive the host into the wildest behavior Light can become dark vice versa Sometimes this is done simply by causing the host s own body to overproduce a chemical or two such as testosterone in males It often isn t clear how the parasite causes the same effect in a female sometimes they can t or vice versa Sometimes they just turn the host into a female no matter its genetic predilection. Plight of the Living deadgrass The final chapters mention why this branch is so underdeveloped A large part of it is our own Umwelt It took an amazingly long time for scientists to believe that bats could navigate by sounds we couldn t hear or birds could see light that we can t A large part of this is religion of course We believed were the penultimate creation or final stage of evolution The latter notion is still prevalent today when actually we re just one complicated machine badly behaving sacks of chemicals per Vonnegut created through evolution Technology is allowing us to see what birds do now but we still don t know much about smell arguably the earliest most primitive sense What does the world look like to a tick Are we even looking in the right places The final chapter focuses on the notion of free will how it is an illusion Mentioned recommended by both Simon myself is Free Will by Sam Harris which takes an interesting trip down that wormhole if you re really interested I m going to keep acting as if I had it but YMMV Table of Contents1 The First Rule of Zombification You Do Not Want to Be a Zombie2 Nothing Brings the World Together Like Unsolicited Mind Control3 When Life Gets Complicated Life Gets Zombified4 No Creature Lives in a Vacuum Not Even a Zombie5 How to Succeed in Parasitism Without Really Dying6 Dawn of the Sexually Undead7 The Great Escape from the Umwelt8 The Great Hacking of the Umwelt9 The Brain Hacked Mouse That Wore a Funny Hat and Destroyed the Notion of Free Will10 You the Undead11 End TimesHighly recommended 0143131419 This is very much a Popular Science book That may be good or bad depending on your own preferences so I ll try to avoid a value judgement but let me at least explain what I mean Plight of the Living Dead reads like a very very long article on something like IFLS The stories about mind altering parasitism are flashy and awe inspiring Or Horror inspiring take your pick but lack the substance I was expecting from a published paper bound book If you just want to get a vague idea of some cool animal facts this book has dinner table stories in droves If you want to gain a deeper understanding at the biology evolution and ecology that underlies those species species relationships you ll need to dig deeper than this book Unfortunately this often means the book ends up a little sensationalist and misleading because of the choice in what to focus on and what not to include For me that was a huge disappointment I expected a book to have a greater opportunity to tackle in depth the science behind these parasitic interactions but here the book favours is a sweeping narrative using its length to cover a higher number of species interactions rather than exploring any in detail Because it misses out on these detailed explanations for any example it flounders in its attempt to build generalising explanations for all The book also paints a pretty misleading picture of both the science and scientists behind the topic It throws a lot of off hand shade at the scientists studying parasitic organisms in what feels like a strange attempt to inject humour and keep narrative momentum For example the book makes the important point that in order to understand an animal you need to see the world though its own eyes or whatever sensory systems it has and look at the abilities and limitations of its own senses and how it interacts with the world This is all true but the book seems to push it as an important revelation when in fact scientists have known and worked with this to the best of the ability for a very long time Indeed the entire field of ethology is dedicated to such an approach. Plight of the Living deadcenter From a straight reading of the book I think the author could have benefited from some in depth research into the topics behind the direct topics that were covered general behavioural biology and ecology and especially the discussion of free will However It is difficult to tell how much the author really knows and how much he just isn t writing down The product is clear though Philosophically speaking the book is a mess unsure if it wants to advocate for or against dualism and constantly contradicting itself It argues for hard determinism in the free will debate but seems to neglect the extensive literature on free will Scientifically speaking the book is a light scratch on the surface Ultimately I was disappointed because I expected from a book and it feels like what I got was a very very extensive article one that keeps coming to a natural close and then jumping up with And another example But I can t be too harsh on the book because I did genuinely learn from it I learned some specific species species interactions I d not heard of but that s not surprising Of the thousands of host parasites symbioses that exist in the world it would be very unlikely for the author to have chosen just the couple I was already familiar with and I did genuinely enjoy reading about the ones I d not encountered before and then looking them up on Wikipedia to get my fix of a deeper understanding But this book also did change my thinking and for the better The book sells itself as being about mind control parasites When I picked it up I expected the few I knew of Jewel wasps T Gondi things that get into the brain and play havoc with neural control systems When the book first started describing other parasites I was a little taken aback That isn t mind control Well The book convinced me that this kind of sensory non neuronal mind hacking definitely deserves to be classed with the rest and is perhaps even scary than brain slugs because it doesn t require direct tampering with neuronal systems That s a cognitive paradigm shift I m grateful for and despite my many issues with the book wasps made Darwin doubt the existence of a loving God. Plight of the Living deadgrass But parasites have way tools in their tool box to influence their victims then direct brain control They range from altering how the victim perceives the world possibly driving them towards an area that will get the victim eaten by a creature that is the next step in the parasite s life cycle or making them invisible to their victim population to fooling the host into caring for its offspring like with the cuckoo bird to causing the host to avoid circumstances that would reduce the ability of the parasite to reproduce such as in the case of rabies victims avoiding water that would wash away the virus rich foam at the mouth The range of parasitic behavior highlighted in the book was eye opening and gave me a deeper respect fear of the forces of evolution. Plight of the Living deadgrass Simon also made two novel points that I had not deeply considered before The presence of a parasite can have a significant impact on the local ecosystem beyond its immediate victim A parasite s effects can alter the availability of a particular type of food sustaining certain types of populations and altering the makeup of the local flora and fauna Nature is a complex system so the presence of a parasite would naturally have a cascading effect on its local ecosystem. Plight of the Living deadblue The other insightful point Simon raises in the idea of Umwelt the unique way an organism perceives the world Humans mostly perceive the world through sight and sound with some touch taste and smell thrown in but many other creatures rely on a greater emphasis on the other senses such as smell for ants or senses that we do not posses such as seeing into the ultraviolet range for birds Parasites of such creatures may be hacking those creatures specific umwelts to achieve their ends and loved Simon s spin on the lack of Hollywood capitalization over Chinese burglars getting their hands on unicorn caterpillars A must read due to unavailability of free will You will succumb 0143131419 I wanted to like this book I really did I swear I m the kind of person who is open to most everything I consider myself to be pretty well educated and receptive to new ideas and beliefs I came upon this book and was instantly hooked on the weirder scientific aspects of nature and I had hoped for a witty in depth look at the world of biological zombification Did I get this Yes but at the expense of my own patience Let s start with the positives Matt Simon writes in an ironic humourous tone that will keep readers engaged and laughing It s also clear that Simon has put a lot of research into his work interviewing experts on subjects from jewel wasps to Ophios Readers who are scientifically inclined and fans of the grosser side of nature will surely find this a compelling read. Plight of the Living deadblue What I couldn t stand was the nihilism Now while I consider myself to be an optimist and somewhat spiritual I m not ignorant I believe in evolution climate change the works I encourage people to speak their own minds and to question worldviews as they try to discover why on earth we re alive What I cannot tolerate however is the assumption that someone has figured out EVERYTHING As I read this work I couldn t help but grow frustrated at Simon s continual emphasis on his beliefs that there is no higher power there is no human soul and there is no reason for being on this Earth except to procreate To put it frankly I ended Plight of the Living Dead feeling hopeless Perhaps I read too far into it but I had hoped to gain a fascinating insight into a relatively unknown aspect of biology and I was struck in the fact with what I saw to be intensive fatalism Which as I must assert is fine for some but not for me Will this deter everyone from reading this work Definitely not Is it worth a read Of course But just bear in mind that for someone like me who believes that humans are than walking sacks of meat Plight of the Living Dead can be a little difficult to swallow in one sitting Matt Simon WILL make you think regardless of your beliefs and if that s good enough for you then I commend you 0143131419 Deeply deeply disappointed in this book As disgusting as they are I ve always been fascinated by parasites and was incredibly excited to read Mr Simon s book when I first learned it was being released I d never read any of this other stuff so had no preconceived ideas and just dove in with an open mind. Plight of the Living deadblue Unfortunately this book is a terrible read It s hard to believe but Mr Simon manages to take one of the weirdest and most riveting topics possible and turn it into a boring drudge His writing style is also embarrassingly unprofessional and his thought process such as as it is hyperactive and disorganized which means the book jumps all over the place So annoying He s also clearly left leaning so is completely obsessed with endlessly pontificating about totally unproven theories of evolution In other words there s very little of actual science or of any worth here For those interested in a far superior study of parasites I very highly recommend Carl Zimmer s Parasite Rex STILL one of the best science related books I have ever read to date Mr Zimmer is a well respected professional award winning science writer and it definitely shows as his books are very interesting and difficult to set aside for any length of time I daresay that Mr Simon could certainly learn a thing or two from him 0143131419 A nonsensical account of how parasites can control their hosts like zombies Don t bother wastMATT SIMON IS GOOD HUMAN HUMANS SHOULD BUY HIS BOOK MATT SIMON ID GOOD HUMAN HUMANS SHOULD BUY HIS BOOK 0143131419 Viegli saprotami un pietiekami labi uzrakst ta pop varb t nedaudz p r k pop zin tniska gr mata 0143131419 A brain bending exploration of real life zombies and mind controllers and what they reveal to us about nature and ourselves Zombieism isn t just the stuff of movies and TV shows like The Walking Dead It s real and it s happening in the world around us from wasps and worms to dogs and moose and even humans In Plight of the Living Dead science journalist Matt Simon documents his journey through the bizarre evolutionary history of mind control Along the way he visits a lab where scientists infect ants with zombifying fungi joins the search for kamikaze crickets in the hills of New Mexico and travels to Israel to meet the wasp that stings cockroaches in the brain before leading them to their doom Nothing Hollywood dreams up can match the brilliant horrific zombies that natural selection has produced time and time again Plight of the Living Dead is a surreal dive into a world that would be totally unbelievable if very smart scientists didn t happen to be proving it s real and most troublingly or maybe intriguingly of all how even we humans are affected Fantastic You ll be thinking about this book long after you re done reading it Kelly Weinersmith New York Times bestselling coauthor of Soonish Plight of the Living Dead What Real Life Zombies Reveal about Our World And Ourselves.