Carl Zimmer: Planet of Viruses
Written by PBS NewsHour
Narrated by PBS NewsHour
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Consider these facts from Carl Zimmer’s book, A Planet of Viruses: If you put all the viruses in the ocean on a scale, they would equal the weight of 75 million blue whales. And if you lined up all those viruses end to end, “they would stretch out past the nearest 60 galaxies.”
In 17th century England, Zimmer writes, cures for the rhinovirus, or the common cold, included a blend of gunpowder and eggs and fried cow dung and suet. Today, he says, doctors have little more to offer a person that’s sick with a cold.
Zimmer is a contributing editor at Discover, an author of 12 books on science and a regular contributor to the New York Times. (He also has a tapeworm named after him.) We spoke with him recently about his latest book, in which he uncovers the bizarre world of viruses living in the soil, in caves underground and in our own bodies — while addressing the fundamental questions driving virologists. Why, for example, has it been so hard to find a penicillin for viruses? Which virus will become the next great pandemic? Will scientists ever develop a cure for the common cold? And should they?
More audiobooks from Pbs News Hour
Michael Lewis: The Big Short Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James McBride: The Good Lord Bird Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Christopher Curtis: Bud, Not Buddy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5‘The Overstory' Author Richard Powers Answers Your Questions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Ronan Farrow Discovered About The Systems That Cover Up Sexual Misconduct Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Author Elaine Pagels Explores Why Humans Rely On Religious Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Miles: God: A Biography Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Childhood Trauma Impacts Millions Of Americans, And It's Having Devastating Consequences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Lewis: Walking With The Wind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How South Africa plans to end AIDS: End of AIDS? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGeraldine Brooks: March Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Debating Piketty’s Theory on How Wealth Begets Wealth, Widens the Economic Gap Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Author Jia Tolentino On American Culture Through The Prism Of The Internet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKate DiCamillo: The Tale of Despereaux Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Edwidge Danticat: The Dew Breaker Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5AIDS deaths surge in Russia as global health officials say, ‘They did it all wrong’ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDr. Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Emperor of all Maladies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rohingya Mother Remembers Her Rapists Every Time She Holds Her Baby Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMany College Students Struggle To Pass Remedial Math. Do They Need To? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDaniel Yergin: Energy Costs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bernd Heinrich On His 'Unusual' Life As A Runner And Biologist In Maine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Goldman Sachs Part I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tim O'Brien Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Miami is the epicenter of new HIV cases in the U.S.: End of AIDS: Far from Over Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmericans Are Living Alone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivil Rights Pioneer Ruby Bridges On Activism In The Modern Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJhumpa Lahiri: The Namesake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As High Temperatures Hurt Sicily's Food Production, Rising Sea Levels Threaten Housing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Carl Zimmer
Related audiobooks
A Planet of Viruses: Third Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Evolution Is Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oxygen: The molecule that made the world Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlien Worlds: The Secret Lives of Insects Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Arrival the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInsulin - The Crooked Timber: A History from Thick Brown Muck to Wall Street Gold Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power in the Wild: The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways Animals Strive for Control over Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined - And Redefined - Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assembling Life: How Can Life Begin on Earth and Other Habitable Planets? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is Life?: Five Great Ideas in Biology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brains Through Time: A Natural History of Vertebrates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Language Arts & Discipline For You
Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mastering Logical Fallacies: The Definitive Guide to Flawless Rhetoric and Bulletproof Logic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secrets of Successful Public Speakers: How to Improve Confidence and Credibility in Your Communication Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Writing Well Audio Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Your Case: How to Present, Persuade, and Prevail--Every Place, Every Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Cs of Effective Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Write Your First Novel: The Stress-Free Guide to Writing Fiction for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Messages: The Communication Skills Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Start to Finish: The Transformative Power of Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Quiet by Susan Cain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the President's Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer (A 6-Week Artist's Way Program) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Carl Zimmer
6 ratings0 reviews