David Quammen

A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerginghuman diseases.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction and A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 Nonpareil science writer David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life’s history, with powerful implications for human health and even our own human nature. In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen, “one of that rare breed of science journalists who blends exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling” (Nature), chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them—such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about “mosaic” creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health. “Quammen is no ordinary writer. He is simply astonishing, one of that rare class of writer gifted with verve, ingenuity, humor, guts, and great heart” (Elle). Now, in The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies such as CRISPR, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. The Tangled Tree is a brilliant guide to our transformed understanding of evolution, of life’s history, and of our own human nature.

A Radical New History of Life

The Tangled Tree

Takes a close-up look at island biogeography, the science of the geographic distribution of life on islands, and its significance in terms of evolution and extinction

Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

The Song of the Dodo

Traces the twenty-one-year period between Charles Darwin's original idea about natural selection and the publication of "On the Origin of Species," in an account that offers insight into his experiences as a cautious naturalist.

An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin

Tells the history of the deadly disease, why it appears and disappears so suddenly and what might happen in the future if its host animal is never found.

The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus

Ebola

A collection of twentysix essays about the natural world captures the relationship between human and animal, with such topics as rattlesnakes and their handlers, and spiders and arachnophobia, all told in an entertaining, enlightening style.

Nature in the Eye of the Beholder

The Boilerplate Rhino

The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

Breathless

Great and terrible flesh-eating beasts have always shared the landscape with humans. Now, of course, as humans spread and despoil the planet, predators may only survive on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. David Quammen is no armchair evolutionary theorist, and, in The Song of the Dodo, everything he writes about he has experienced first-hand. In this book he examines the fate of lions in India's Gir forest, saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and Siberian tigers. He is equally intrigued by the traditional relationship between the great predators and the people who live among them, and weaves into his story the fears and myths that have haunted humankind for millennia. Praise for The Song of the Dodo: *This book is vital' John Fowles, Sunday Times *'Not since Gerald Durrell's books 30 years ago have I encountered such writing about the natural world. The witty, pithy, modest prose and the clever interweaving of science and storytelling are of a quality unrivalled in the field.' Matt Ridley, Sunday Telegraph *'Quammen's heroic, demanding book is a monument to scholarly rigour and scientific accuracy. Scientists are raving about it in the States, yet the lay reader too will be borne along by his engaging intelligence, his good-natured mix of learning and humour.' Alexander Frater, Observer

The Man-eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind

Monster of God

Spillover. L'evoluzione delle pandemie

الفيض

Der tödliche Sprung vom Tier zum Menschen Lebensbedrohende Infektionskrankheiten wie AIDS, Ebola, Virusgrippen, SARS und aktuell Covid-19 können sich dank der Globalisierung schnell über große Räume verbreiten und Epidemien oder gar Pandemien auslösen. Ihnen ist eines gemeinsam: Die Erreger sprangen vom Tier auf den Menschen über – der sogenannte Spillover. In einem ebenso spannend erzählten wie beunruhigenden Buch schildert der preisgekrönte Wissenschaftsautor David Quammen wie und wo bevorzugt Viren, Bakterien und andere Erreger auf den Menschen übertragen werden. Er begleitet Forscher bei der Suche nach dem Ursprung der Seuchen unter anderem zu Gorillas in den Kongo, beobachtet sie bei der Arbeit mit Fledermäusen in China und Affen in Bangladesch und erklärt, warum die Gefahr des Spillover gestiegen ist. Ein Wissenschaftsthriller über die steigende Gefahr von Pandemien in der globalisierten Welt.

Der tierische Ursprung weltweiter Seuchen

Spillover

The author laments the decline of the big predators--animals that are capable of stalking and killing humans--wondering how our psyches will be affected when the last of these creatures is safely ensconced in a zoo.

A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

Natural Acts

Dispatches from Landscapes of Wonder, Peril, and Hope

Heartbeat of the Wild

Song of the Dodo

a sidelong view of science and nature

The flight of the iguana

EL LIBRO INTERNACIONAL DE REFERENCIA DURANTE LA CUARENTENA. Desde hace años, para los expertos y cualquier persona informada, el estallido de la siguiente pandemia era una cuestión de tiempo, y su origen, evidente: un virus latente en animales que diera el salto al ser humano como el HIV que provocó el SIDA o el H1N1 que causó la gripe de 1918, el ébola, el SARS, el virus de Marburgo o el que produjo la gripe aviar. En esta obra de referencia internacional, David Quammen se sumerge en la historia reciente de esas enfermedades zoonóticas, y persigue su rastro en compañía de los mejores científicos del mundo en la selva centroafricana, las cuevas de China meridional o las azoteas de Bangladés, pero también en los sofisticados laboratorios cuyo personal investiga virus letales bajo las más altas medidas de seguridad. Aunque Contagio se lee como un thriller, repleto de incidentes, pistas e interrogantes, a la vista de la crisis desatada por la aparición del SARS-CoV-2, su lectura no solo resulta apasionante; es imprescindible. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION "[Mr. Quammen] is not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, period." ―Dwight Garner, New York Times The next big human pandemic―the next disease cataclysm, perhaps on the scale of AIDS or the 1918 influenza―is likely to be caused by a new virus coming to humans from wildlife. Experts call such an event “spillover” and they warn us to brace ourselves. David Quammen has tracked this subject from the jungles of Central Africa, the rooftops of Bangladesh, and the caves of southern China to the laboratories where researchers work in space suits to study lethal viruses. He illuminates the dynamics of Ebola, SARS, bird flu, Lyme disease, and other emerging threats and tells the story of AIDS and its origins as it has never before been told. Spillover reads like a mystery tale, full of mayhem and clues and questions. When the Next Big One arrives, what will it look like? From which innocent host animal will it emerge? Will we be ready?

David Quammen

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