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A Planet of Viruses [Third Edition]
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A Planet of Viruses [Third Edition]
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Bowlby
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By:
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Carl Zimmer
About this listen
In 2020, an invisible germ - a virus - wholly upended our lives. We're most familiar with the viruses that give us colds or Covid-19. But viruses also cause a vast range of other diseases, including one disorder that makes people sprout branch-like growths as if they were trees. Viruses have been a part of our lives for so long that we are actually part virus: the human genome contains more DNA from viruses than our own genes. Meanwhile, scientists are discovering viruses everywhere they look: in the soil, in the ocean, even in deep caves miles underground.
Fully revised and updated, with a new chapter about coronaviruses and the spread of Covid-19, this third edition of Carl Zimmer's A Planet of Viruses pulls back the veil on this hidden world. It presents the latest research on how viruses hold sway over our lives and our biosphere, how viruses helped give rise to the first life-forms, how viruses are producing new diseases, how we can harness viruses for our own ends, and how viruses will continue to control our fate as long as life endures.
©2011, 2015, 2021 The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 550
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 467
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 467
The story of viruses and humanity is a story of fear and ignorance, of grief and heartbreak, and of great bravery and sacrifice. Michael Oldstone tells all these stories as he illuminates the history of the devastating diseases that have tormented humanity, focusing mostly on the most famous viruses. For this revised edition, Oldstone includes discussions of new viruses like SARS, bird flu, virally caused cancers, chronic wasting disease, and West Nile. Viruses, Plagues, and History paints a sweeping portrait of humanity's long-standing conflict with our unseen viral enemies.
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4 out of 5 stars
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very detailed, but very statistical
- By ekhensel15 on 01-12-19
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Life's Edge
- The Search for What It Means to Be Alive
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 359
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 293
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 290
Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can’t answer that question here on Earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts - whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What is Life?
- By Shane S Shull on 04-29-21
By: Carl Zimmer
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She Has Her Mother's Laugh
- The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 855
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 745
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 739
She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Changed this strict genetic determinist's mind
- By Anonymous User on 06-11-18
By: Carl Zimmer
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Epigenetics: How Environment Changes Your Biology
- By: Charlotte Mykura, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Charlotte Mykura
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Epigenetics is the science of living DNA, charting the chemical pathways that spur DNA into action by turning genes on and off. While the Human Genome Project of the early 2000s was hailed as the key to understanding human heredity and disease, that historic effort was just the beginning. It has taken epigenetics to fill in the picture, explaining how the fixed code of our genome is implemented in countless living processes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Really good
- By Talia on 03-25-23
By: Charlotte Mykura, and others
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Biochemistry
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Mark Lorch
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
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Story5 out of 5 stars 14
This Very Short Introduction discusses the key concepts of biochemistry, as well as the historical figures in the field and the molecules they studied, before considering the current science and innovations in the field, and the interaction between biochemistry, biotechnology, and synthetic biology.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good Beginning
- By Rich on 05-16-24
By: Mark Lorch
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Blood and Guts
- A History of Surgery
- By: Richard Hollingham
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
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Story5 out of 5 stars 60
Today, astonishing surgical breakthroughs are making limb transplants, face transplants, and a host of other previously undreamed-of operations possible. But getting here has not been a simple story of medical progress. In Blood and Guts, veteran science writer Richard Hollingham weaves a compelling narrative from the key moments in surgical history. We have a ringside seat in the operating theater of University College Hospital in London as world-renowned Victorian surgeon Robert Liston performs a remarkable amputation in 30 seconds - from first cut to final stitch.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I love this book!
- By Kristin on 08-25-19
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The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023
- By: Carl Zimmer, Jaime Green
- Narrated by: Katharine Chin, Shahjehan Khan, Nikki Massoud, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
“What's most compelling about a scientific story is the way it challenges us to think about the concepts we take for granted,” writes guest editor Carl Zimmer in his introduction. The essays in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing probe at the ordinary and urge us to think more deeply about our place in the world around us.
By: Carl Zimmer, and others
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Infinitesimal
- How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World
- By: Amir Alexander
- Narrated by: Ira Rosenberg
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 121
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4 out of 5 stars 110
On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An intriguing and underappreciated bit of history
- By Marino on 09-22-14
By: Amir Alexander
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Rabid
- A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus
- By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,395
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2,076
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,081
The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Unexpected and Intriguing
- By Cynthia on 06-09-13
By: Bill Wasik, and others
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The Puritans
- A Transatlantic History
- By: David D. Hall
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 21 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 30
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4 out of 5 stars 26
This book is a sweeping transatlantic history of Puritanism from its emergence out of the religious tumult of Elizabethan England to its founding role in the story of America. Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, David Hall provides a multifaceted account of a cultural movement that judged the Protestant reforms of Elizabeth's reign to be unfinished.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent History and Legacy for today
- By GallowsJudge on 02-12-21
By: David D. Hall
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Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
- From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19
- By: Heather E. Quinlan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
It can come in waves - like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Somewhat elemental
- By Bertha Watkins on 10-23-21
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The Man Who Loved Books Too Much
- The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
- By: Allison Hoover Bartlett
- Narrated by: Judith Brackley
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 284
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 143
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 144
John Charles Gilkey is an obsessed, unrepentant book thief who has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of rare books from book fairs, stores, and libraries around the country. Ken Sanders is the self-appointed "bibliodick" (book dealer with a penchant for detective work) driven to catch him. Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett befriended both eccentric characters and found herself caught in the middle of efforts to recover hidden treasure.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Repetitive
- By Margaret on 09-06-10
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Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test
- How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters
- By: Marlene Zuk
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
For centuries, people have been returning to the same tired nature-versus-nurture debate, trying to determine what we learn and what we inherit. In Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test, biologist Marlene Zuk goes beyond the binary and instead focuses on interaction, or the way that genes and environment work together. Driving her investigation is a simple but essential question: How does behavior evolve?
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good information, but reader distracts from it.
- By Jeremy Proctor on 02-13-23
By: Marlene Zuk
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Sybil Exposed
- The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
- By: Debbie Nathan
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4 out of 5 stars 162
Journalist Debbie Nathan reveals the true story behind the famous case of Sybil, the woman with sixteen different personalities.
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3 out of 5 stars
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No definitive answer, just speculations all around
- By Amy A on 12-30-18
By: Debbie Nathan
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Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 197
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 129
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
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Genentech
- The Beginnings of Biotech
- By: Sally Smith Hughes
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 in the first few minutes of trading. Coming at a time of economic recession and declining technological competitiveness in the United States, the event ignited a period of speculative frenzy over biotechnology.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Shallow and lifeless
- By LTS on 11-26-23
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10% Human
- How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness
- By: Alanna Collen
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony. Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies and becoming a healthy human is impossible without them.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Must read for anyone that wants to be healthy
- By T. Kalinowski on 06-05-21
By: Alanna Collen
What listeners say about A Planet of Viruses [Third Edition]
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- H. Singh
- 05-02-24
Great overview of viral world
cover in detail where needed and gives overview where detail would be too much. you will understand the virus world much better after reading this.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Samuel Lampa
- 08-23-24
Quite interesting stories but not very deep
This was a short listen that felt well worth the time investment as it provided good information and interesting stories in a concise manner.
Optimally I'd have appreciated a little more scientific details about the mechanism and structure of different types of viruses though, but I reckon I'll have to find this info elsewhere.
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