Science and Society | Doctors by Nature: How Animals Medicate Themselves

• Tuesday, September 16 @ 5:00 pm
• Lewes Public Library, Lewes, DE

Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature’s pharmacy to heal themselves. In his new book, Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves, Jaap de Roode discusses how an astonishing array of non-human animals—from ants to apes, bees to bears, and cats to caterpillars—use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. Some also use natural toxins to deter parasites from infecting themselves and their offspring. De Roode argues these surprising behaviors, many of which have only recently been discovered, could point to ways that humans can improve agriculture, create healthier lives for our pets, sustain better habitats for wild pollinators, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University. His research includes pioneering studies on self-medication by monarch butterflies.

The library's “Science and Society – Making Sense of the World Around Us” lecture series is co-organized and moderated by Fred Dylla, Executive Director Emeritus of the American Institute of Physics and author of Scientific Journeys, Linda Dylla, former public information officer at the Jefferson Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, and Colin Norman, the former News Editor at Science.

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