Main content

Parasitism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Parasitism, the relationship between two species where one benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes killing the host or causing disease.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between parasites and hosts, where one species lives on or in another to the benefit of the parasite but at a cost to the host, potentially leading to disease or death of the host. Typical examples are mistletoe and trees, hookworms and vertebrates, cuckoos and other birds. In many cases the parasite species do so well in or on a particular host that they reproduce much faster and can adapt to changes more efficiently, and it is thought that almost half of all animal species have a parasitic stage in their lifetime. What techniques do hosts have to counter the parasites, and what impact do parasites have on the evolution of their hosts?

With

Steve Jones
Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, London

Wendy Gibson
Professor of Protozoology at the University of Bristol

and

Kayla King
Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Available now

46 minutes

Last on

Thu 26 Jan 2017 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

at the University of Bristol

at University College, London

at the University of Oxford

Μύ– Wikipedia

- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

– University of Leicester

The text of by Paul de KruifΜύ

by Hans Zinsser

- The Carter Center

- World Health Organisation

Grand challenges research program - Gates Foundation

– Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Future

Toxoplasmosis – NHS

Μύ

READING LIST:

Robert S. Desowitz, New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People (W. W. Norton & Company, 1987)

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years (Vintage, 1998)

Gerald W. Esch, Parasites and Infectious Disease: Discovery by Serendipity and Otherwise (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Timothy M. Goater, Cameron P. Goater, Gerald W. Esch, Parasitism: The Diversity and Ecology of Animal Parasites (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

Steve Jones, Evolution: A Ladybird Expert Book (Michael Joseph, 2017)

Paul de Kruif, The Microbe Hunters (first published 1926; Houghton Mifflin, 2002)

Matt Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Penguin, 1994)

Paul Schmid-Hempel, Evolutionary Parasitology: The Integrated Study of Infections, Immunology, Ecology, and Genetics (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Carl Zimmer, Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice and History (first published 1935; Transaction Publishers, 2008)

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Interviewed Guest Steve Jones
Interviewed Guest Wendy Gibson
Interviewed Guest Kayla King
Producer Simon Tillotson

Broadcasts

  • Thu 26 Jan 2017 09:00
  • Thu 26 Jan 2017 21:30

Featured in...

In Our Time podcasts

Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.

The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10

If you’re new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.

Arts and Ideas podcast

Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.

Podcast