Carl Zimmer—A Planet of Viruses, Third Edition

A PLANET OF VIRUSES, Third Edition
Carl Zimmer
University of Chicago Press, April 2021, $15
ISBN-10:‎ 022678259X, ISBN-13:‎ 978-0226782591

Zimmer reports:

A Planet of Viruses has had a long evolution. It emerged out of a series of essays I wrote over a decade ago as part of an educational project at the University of Nebraska. For each essay, I picked a single virus to discuss, using it to explore a major theme of virology in general. For example, to talk about whether viruses can ever be eradicated, I wrote about one of the rare successes, when humanity wiped out smallpox.

By the time I was done with the essays, my collaborators and I realized that I had actually written a book. We approached the University of Chicago Press with my essays. They published A Planet of Viruses in 2011.

Three years later, we realized that the book needed an update. That’s because Ebola was sweeping across West Africa, and suddenly the world wanted to know more about viruses--how they work, where they come from, and how we can fight them. The second edition of A Planet of Viruses came out in 2015.

In 2020, Covid-19 created a new appetite for information about viruses. And so I wrote a third edition, which has just come out. The book is updated throughout, including the latest research on viruses ranging from HIV to influenza. I also added a new chapter on SARS-CoV-2.

The emergency of Covid-19 can seem mystifying to people who haven’t given viruses much thought before. But in A Planet of Viruses, I placed the coronavirus in its proper context: the virosphere. Earth is home to about 10000000000000000000000000000000 viruses. They infect every cellular form of life. There are even viruses that infect other viruses. Some scientists have estimated there are over a trillion species of viruses on Earth.

The vast majority of these viruses will never pose a threat to us. They will infect bacteria, algae, coral reefs, and other species. But some--especially certain viruses that infect bats and other mammals--have the potential to spill over the species barrier and start new pandemics. Covid-19 was not the first such event, and it won’t be the last.

Contact info:

• Carl Zimmer: 917-863-0212, carl@carlzimmer.com, https://carlzimmer.com/, @carlzimmer
• Book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo89967708.html
• Publicist: Nicholas Lilly, 773-702-7490, nlilly@uchicago.edu

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