A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer

This was a brief series of essays Carl Zimmer wrote about viruses. Very well researched and written. I didn't know anything about phages so that was super cool to learn about.

November 18, 2020

Melissa

A fascinating and quick read. I learned a lot!

November 9, 2016

andy

This is decent as a pop-sci book but it's not a very good book as an introductory virology piece. Most of the viruses introduced here are pretty well known for anyone who had biology in their higher secondary school. The most interesting factors like gene reshuffling, how oceanic viruses contributed to abiogenesis, or the cross transfer of zoonosis viruses among species were not clearly discussed here which made it rather dull. There is also no mention of the newer viruses like Nipah and the mention of other not-so-common viruses like Zika has been glossed over very minimally.
All these aside it's pretty good for anyone who has very limited knowledge of viruses and I also like the chapters where he discussed SARS-Covid and smallpox viruses.
3.25/5

September 14, 2023