Mites and lice, fleas, ticks, and tapeworms -- most living creatures that have a habitat also are a habitat, including you (are you itchy yet?). Unwelcome guests -- parasites -- are everywhere, from the barnacles hitching a ride on a humpback whale's head to the tiny flies that control a bee's brain and make it literally dig its own grave. Now an expert team returns for an in-depth look at how these insidious critters do it, whether it's leaping aboard...

Pests & Parasites features the tiny, sometimes life-threatening insects and creatures that creep and crawl on human skin, such as lice, ticks, bed bugs, and dust mites.

In Creek's Cause, the Rain brothers and their friend Alexandra fight for humanity's survival as everyone over the age of eighteen turns into dangerous, zombie-like beings. In Creek's Cause, the fight for humanity's survival continues. Everyone over the age of eighteen has been turning into ferocious, zombie-like beings-- and the spores that cause the transformation are not of this Earth. Now a new breed of predatory creature has been spawned, devouring...

Are zombies real? As far as we know, dead people do not come back to life and start walking around, looking for trouble. But there are things that can take over the bodies and brains of innocent creatures, turning them into senseless slaves. Meet nature's zombie makers--including a fly-enslaving fungus, a suicide worm, and a cockroach-taming wasp--and their victims.

Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be and shows ways this deadly world has shaped us as humans and what our responsibilities are to this terrible, wonderful planet we call home.

Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she's come to hate, and her messed-up life. She's run all the way to outer space, where she's taken a position as a "space janitor," cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions. But no matter how far she goes, Rosalyn can't escape herself. After too many mistakes on the job, she's given one last chance: take care of salvaging the Brigantine, a research vessel that has gone dark,...

"In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron's doctor has died. The doctor's replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and...