Acanthocephala is a group of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its host. Acanthocephalans have complex life cycles, involving at least two hosts, which may include invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals. About 1420 species have been described.
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes.
Sacculina is a genus of barnacles that is a parasitic castrator of crabs. They belong to a group called Rhizocephala. The adults bear no resemblance to the barnacles that cover ships and piers; they are recognised as barnacles because their larval forms are like other members of the barnacle class Cirripedia. The prevalence of this crustacean parasite in its crab host can be as high as 50%.
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology.
Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature is a 1984 book by the evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, the neurobiologist Steven Rose, and the psychologist Leon Kamin, in which the authors criticize sociobiology and genetic determinism and advocate a socialist society. Its themes include the relationship between biology and society, the nature versus nurture debate, and the intersection of science and ideology.
Carl Zimmer is a popular science writer, blogger, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of evolution, parasites, and heredity. The author of many books, he contributes science essays to publications such as The New York Times, Discover, and National Geographic. He is a fellow at Yale University's Morse College and adjunct professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University. Zimmer also gives frequent lectures and has appeared on many radio shows, including National Public Radio's Radiolab, Fresh Air, and This American Life.
Anagyrus lopezi is a species of parasitic wasp native to Central America. It is used as biological control agent against the cassava mealybug.
Euhaplorchis californiensis is a trophically transmitted parasite (TTP) that lives in the salt-water marshes of Southern California. It lives in three hosts: shorebirds, horn snails, and killifish. As with many TTPs, E. californiensis modifies the behavior of the host to increase the likelihood of transmission to its next host.
Parasitic castration is the strategy, by a parasite, of blocking reproduction by its host, completely or in part, to its own benefit. This is one of six major strategies within parasitism.
Klaus Rohde is a German biologist and parasitologist at the University of New England (UNE), Australia. He is known particularly for his work on marine parasitology, evolutionary ecology, zoogeography, phylogeny, and ultrastructure of lower invertebrates.
Gottlieb Heinrich Friedrich Küchenmeister was a German physician.
Claude Combes is a French biologist and parasitologist. He is a professor of animal biology and director of the Centre de Biologie et Écologie Tropicale et Méditerranéenne at the Université de Perpignan.
The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality is a nonfiction book by writer and professor Richard Panek and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on January 10, 2011.
Founded in 1924, the American Society of Parasitologists comprises a diverse group of about 700 scientists from academia, industry, and government involved in the study and teaching of the scientific discipline of parasitology. Society members contribute to the development of parasitology as a discipline, as well as to primary research in behavior, biochemistry, ecology, immunology, medicine, molecular biology, physiology, systematics, and other related fields of science.
Anna J. Phillips is an American Research Zoologist and curator of Clitellata and Cestoda at the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Invertebrate Zoology. As a parasitologist her research focuses on leeches and tapeworms, by studying their diversity, relationships, and host associations. She has traveled all over the world with her fieldwork to study the diversity of these invertebrates on a long range.
Alan Frederick Cowman AC, FRS, FAA, CorrFRSE, FAAHMS, FASP, FASM is an internationally acclaimed malaria researcher whose work specialises in researching the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the molecular mechanisms it uses to evade host responses and antimalarial drugs. He is currently deputy directory of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, and his laboratory continues to work on understanding how Plasmodium falciparum, infects humans and causes disease. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2011 and awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019 for his "eminent service to the biological sciences, notably to molecular parasitology, to medical research and scientific education, and as a mentor."
Mark E. Siddall is a Canadian biologist and former curator at the American Museum of Natural History. Siddall has studied the evolution and systematics of blood parasites and leeches, and systematic theory. Siddall was hired as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History in July, 1999 and worked there as a curator until September, 2020, when he was terminated for allegedly having violated the museum's policy prohibiting sexual relationships between staff and mentees. Siddall denied the claim.
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher is a 1979 collection of essays by the American science writer Lewis Thomas. It was published by Viking Press in 1979 and reissued by Penguin Books in 1995. Most of the essays in the book had first appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is Thomas's second collection of short essays after Lives of a Cell.
Odile Bain was a French parasitologist.
Keith Roland Matthews,, , is a British cell biologist and parasitologist, currently Professor of Parasite Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on African trypanosomes, which cause human sleeping sickness and the equivalent cattle disease nagana.
