Creepy Crawlies

The Wild Life of Our Bodies - Predators, Parasites and the Partners that Shape Who We Are Today, by Rob Dunn

 
Learning about all the worms and bugs that live in or on the human body sounds pretty disgusting, right? Fortunately, I have a high gross-out threshold. Rob Dunn is a biology professor at NC State, so he presumably knows his stuff, and the book appears to be well researched. He also has an easy-going writing style, dumbing it down just enough for the lay person, so this was an entertaining and informative read, especially if you are interested in evolutionary biology.

Here are some of the fun things I learned from this book: Did you know that in the 1930’s and 1940’s, close to 50% of American children had worms? Once intestinal worms were eradicated, incidents of the once rare Crohn’s disease began to rise. Current research indicates that introducing worms into the bodies of people with Crohn’s, severe allergies and other auto-immune diseases can relieve their suffering. (One would have to be pretty desperate to try this.)

Did you know that the appendix does serve a useful purpose, and is not just a useless vestige of our evolutionary past? Neither did I. Here are some clues: our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and apes, have larger appendices than do other primates such as monkeys (one would expect it to have withered away as we evolved). Also, appendicitis is far less common in the developing world. Researchers now believe that the appendix is storage vessel for bacteria - the good kind that can replenish the gut when it has been cleaned out by illnesses such as cholera.

Other interesting topics in this book abound: How the domestication of animals and the rise of agriculture made us fat; how predators made us scared and prone to anxiety; and some stuff about monkeys and snakes that is really fascinating. (It turns out my fear of snakes is not irrational, it has an evolutionary basis.) I highly recommend this book! My only criticism (and it’s a minor one) is that it could have benefited from some illustrations, such as the ones on the book jacket.