Watch out for Toxo!: The Secret Guide to Practical Science - Softcover

Flegr, Jaroslav

Softcover

ISBN 10: 807444046X ISBN 13: 9788074440465

Verlag: Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Parasites have uncanny ways of manipulating their host species, but we rarely see ourselves as the objects of manipulation. However, that view suffered a blow recently with the wildly increasing number of discoveries suggesting that we are as susceptible to parasitic manipulation as any other animal. Professor Jaroslav Flegr describes the rich history of discoveries of the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii’s influence over the human psyche, behavior and physical state. The lifelong and insofar incurable latent infection by this parasite afflicts roughly a third of the world population and in some countries even the vast majority of their people. Two decades of research primarily at the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague, but also top American and British institutions (Stanford, Baltimore, Oxford) showed that Toxoplasma influences personality traits of infected people, increases their reaction times and the risk of a traffic accident, and changes the sex ratio among children of Toxo positive women. New research also suggests that Toxoplasma may be responsible for many cases of schizophrenia and perhaps several other disorders as well. The book is also a fascinating window into the methodology of science and contains useful information for anyone who wants to peer deeper into the world of science.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Professor Jaroslav Flegr studied cell biology and animal physiology at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. In this position he currently teaches evolutionary biology, evolutionary and ecological parasitology, and practical scientific methodology. Besides studying evolution, he researches the effects of the Toxoplasma parasite and blood groups on human health and behavior. He is the author of more than 130 publications, including the widely used textbook Mechanisms of Evolution, as well as the popular science books Frozen Evolution: Or, that's not the way it is, Mr. Darwin (winner of the Magnesia Litera Prize for Educational Literature) and Watch out for Toxo!: The Secret Guide to Practical Science. In the year 2014 he received the international Ig Nobel prize in the category of public health, an award given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 807444046X
• ISBN 13: 9788074440465
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 402
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.de/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxemburg