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Big Fleas Have Little Fleas - How Discoveries of Invertebrate Diseases are Advancing Modern Science (Paperback)
Loot Price: R354
Discovery Miles 3 540
You Save: R114
(24%)
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Big Fleas Have Little Fleas - How Discoveries of Invertebrate Diseases are Advancing Modern Science (Paperback)
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List price R468
Loot Price R354
Discovery Miles 3 540
You Save R114 (24%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
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Ever since Louis Pasteur saved the French silk industry by
identifying a disease affecting silkworms, scientists have focused
their attention on smaller and smaller organisms. Once upon a time,
the rhinoceros beetle threatened the coconut plantations of
Polynesia until scientists discovered the virus that would control
it. In more modern times, the first experimental vaccine for HIV
was produced using recombinant baculovirus introduced into insect
eggs. Meanwhile, soybeans, corn, and cotton are protected from
insects by genes from one insecticidal bacterium, Bacillus
thuringiensis a and a related strain might hold clues for combating
West Nile virus and malaria. In this book, Elizabeth Davidson
shares amazing stories about diseases of insects and other
invertebrates important to people a and about the scientists who
learned to use those diseases to control pests and create products
beneficial to humans. Focusing on insect-microbial interactions
crucial to public health, she tells detective stories ranging
across global history, from the silkworm farms of
nineteenth-century Japan to the research labs of modern America. In
these fascinating accounts, Davidson shows us how human health
often comes down to a contest of bug against bug. Even habitats
seething with bacteria, such as the runoff from cattle farms or
sewage treatment plants, are also teeming with invertebrate life a
animals that, like ourselves, have ways of fighting infection.
Scientific curiosity about what allows creatures as simple as water
fleas to survive in such polluted environments has led to the
discovery of chemicals with remarkable properties and potential
usefulness to humankind. From diseases of shellfish toparasites of
bees, Davidson opens a window on a world most of us never stop to
consider a but which matters to all of us more than we might ever
imagine. In our present era of pandemic scares, "Big Fleas Have
Little Fleas" is a sweeping historical review thatas as timely as
tomorrowas headlines, showing us that the most exciting discoveries
can emerge from the smallest sources.
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