The Wild Life Of Our Bodies Summary

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The Wild Life of Our Bodies is one of many compelling non-fiction books written by author and scientist Rob Dunn. Mr. Dunn received his PhD in Ecology and Evolution in 2003 from The University of Connecticut and is currently an associate professor at North Carolina State University. This book does a great job of using the findings from many different relatively recent scientific experiments conducted at research laboratories and university's across the world to formulate larger hypothesis’s and theories about how the organisms we have existed alongside for ages may have affected human and early homo sapien evolution.
This book's thesis and main theme revolve around how the effects of modern living and our warfare against the other creatures we coexist with from protists, to insects, to large mammalian predators affect the way we currently live our day to day lives. The book is divided into six sections, the first of which covers the worms and parasites that used to live inside our bodies and the effect that they produce on individuals suffering from auto immune diseases that affect the the digestive systems like Crohn's or …show more content…

In an experiment conducted at The University of Iowa humans diagnosed with these diseases were given worms that originated in pigs as a treatment, the results showed the worms as a highly successful. This evidence suggests that organisms in our body can began to attack our own cells during the absence of the parasites and pathogens that they were developed to defend us against. The second section of the book discusses the human body's appendix which has long been touted as the bodies only unnecessary organ, this has been the common belief since medical technology has allowed us to make their removal quite easy and survivors of this surgery routinely go on with their lives, seemingly fine without it. The theory in these chapters focuses on the idea that the appendix's function is very likely to be