What do you think?
Rate this book
Watch out for Toxo!: The Secret Guide to Practical Science
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.
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.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
4 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 5, 2016
I was pleased to notice this absolutely awesome book has finally come out in English. It is a sorry fate for brilliant Czech authors, that their works are scarcely noticed behind borders, while they and their works are perfectly comparable with foreign authors, in this case with Carl Zimmer's Parasite Rex, Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee, Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, or even books of Richard Dawkins.
Watch our for Toxo! is a story about a journey toward some of the most amazing discoveries concerning human minds. Or human... did you know that a simple one-cell organism can make you choose different style of clothing, shift your personality profile, increase your chance of being killed by a car, or even start a mental disease withing your own brain? So, is it really a purely human mind we are talking about, or are we witnessing one of the most extraordinary cases of The Extended Phenotype, where genes of a simple protozoan control behavior of us, humans?
Not interested in parasites, but interested in how science works? Good, because that's what this book is about as well. I even think that, eventually, everyone with at least slight interest in biology, medicine, or science in general would be pleased by this book. It's a good one. An informative one. A funny one. Try for yourself :)
Watch our for Toxo! is a story about a journey toward some of the most amazing discoveries concerning human minds. Or human... did you know that a simple one-cell organism can make you choose different style of clothing, shift your personality profile, increase your chance of being killed by a car, or even start a mental disease withing your own brain? So, is it really a purely human mind we are talking about, or are we witnessing one of the most extraordinary cases of The Extended Phenotype, where genes of a simple protozoan control behavior of us, humans?
Not interested in parasites, but interested in how science works? Good, because that's what this book is about as well. I even think that, eventually, everyone with at least slight interest in biology, medicine, or science in general would be pleased by this book. It's a good one. An informative one. A funny one. Try for yourself :)
November 17, 2016
Amazing humor and interesting scientific facts. Sometimes too dense, so hard to read :)
November 9, 2023
Zkoušku z metodologie mám, takže účel asi splněn. Flegr je prostě Flegr a i když v knize aspoň mluví spisovnou češtinou, tak pořád využívá každé příležitosti udělat vtípek nebo se něčím pochlubit, snad dokonce častěji než na přednáškách.. :D
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews