Visiting Author – John Janovy, Jr. PhD – Life Lessons From a Parasite: What Tapeworms, Flukes, Lice, and Roundworms Can

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Saturday, Aug 24, 2024  4:30pm - 5:30pm

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Arts

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In August, author and prize-winning scientist John Janovy, Jr. PhD will be visiting Francie & Finch Bookshop to present his new book Life Lessons From a Parasite! You don’t want to miss this fun and educational event. We’ll see you there!

About the Book:
The answers to life’s biggest questions can be found by looking at the little things…
Life’s most profound revelations often emerge from the most unexpected sources. While sometimes imperceptible to the naked eye, parasites inhabit our everyday lives. From headlice to bird droppings, litterboxes to unfiltered water, you have crossed paths time and time again with the most common way of life on our planet—living in (and off off) other organisms. In Life Lessons from a Parasite, parasitologist John Janovy Jr., PhD, reveals what humans can learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on earth.

In Life Lessons from a Parasite, Janovy discusses:
How the worm N. texomensis showed how seemingly simple problems can have solutions that defy the finest minds
How microscopic flagellate living in maggots taught him resilience
That like worms and bacteria, harmful ideas can infect our minds and those of our leaders

About the Author:
Prize-winning scientist and teacher John Janovy, Jr., PhD, is emeritus professor of biology of the University of Nebraska and lives in Lincoln, NE.

Praise for the book:
“In nature, as in society, the parasites outnumber the hosts. John Janovy Jr. offers the parasites’ view of this situation. The result is smart, funny, and all too revealing.”— Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker and New York Times bestselling author of The Sixth Extinction

“This book, a love song to research scientists, is written with the hope that we ordinary humans can learn from their work. Janovy implores his readers to base their conclusions on evidence, rather than being swayed by the many infectious and false ideas in our culture. He stresses that successful organisms adapt to, rather than deny, a changing reality. And he stresses the uniqueness of every organism, no matter how small. Most of all he shows us the complexity and beauty of parasites. After reading this book, I’ll never look at mosquitos in the same way again.” — Dr. Mary Pipher, author of Letters to a Young Therapist

“Professor John Janovy Jr. is one of the one of the great thinkers in the field of parasitology, and our understanding of host parasite relationships. I’m thrilled that now he has synthesized his thinking in this important new book. It is especially timely given how students in parasitology lately go right to the molecules or the cells without the context of the whole organism biology. His new book will help remind us of what we are missing!” — Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, DSc (hon), FASTMH, FAAP, author of The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science