Marlene Zuk Articles

Angela von der Lippe at Norton took world English rights, at auction, to Marlene Zuk's Paleofantasy: How the Pace of Evolution Affects Our Lives.  Zuk, who teaches biology at the University of California, Riverside, sorts myth from fact in this examination of the recent claims, by slow-food advocates and self-help gurus (among others), that people can improve their health by adopting a far simpler lifestyle, more akin to the way our ancestors lived. Wendy Strothman, of the Strothman Agency, brokered the deal, which marks a move for Zuk, whose last two books were published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The truth about misassigned paternity

The wide availability of DNA test kits and the buzz about paternity fraud notwithstanding, the real incidence of misassigned paternity is less sensational than conventional wisdom has it.

by Marlene Zuk, The Los Angeles Times June 20, 2010

What’s a flu like you doing in a host like this? by Marlene Zuk for The Financial Times

Amidst all the swine flu hype and hysteria, the hand-wringing and hand-washing, we have a lot of questions. How bad is this particular flu going to be – more like the usual seasonal viruses, or like the rapacious 1918 version that killed millions worldwide? Will a vaccine be available soon? What are the distinguishing symptoms? But one question seems to be going unasked: how does the flu virus feel about all this?

A virus does not have feelings, exactly. It infects without foresight, malice or mercy. But to understand a disease, it is important to look at things from the point of view of the organism – virus, bacteria or worm – that causes it. Take virulence, for example, the degree of damage a pathogen does to its host. The conventional wisdom used to be that a proper disease evolved to become relatively benign;...