ts you in on a secret: Parasites are all around you, all the time, quietly running the world. You might think of them as slimy, disgusting freeloaders - tapeworms and roundworms and ticks and lice, too small to be important and too selfish to be valued. But by the end of this book, you'll realize that sometimes parasites are the good guys.

Learn where you're most likely to find parasites in your own food (heads up, you might not want to eat any uncooked fish right before reading this book), and how parasitic infection changes the behavior of many organisms--including human beings.

Parasites might be weird and mysterious, but the better we understand them, the less we have to fear about them. In fact, many parasites are in big trouble. With climate change threatening parasites around the world, there's no better time than right now to learn about these often-unseen creatures living among us.