Doctors by Nature: How animals heal themselves Jaap de Roode
Event details
Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature’s pharmacy to heal themselves. Biologist Jaap de Roode, author of Doctors by Nature, will reveal what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world.
He’ll argue that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and show how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine. Drawing on illuminating interviews with leading scientists from around the globe as well as his own pioneering research on monarch butterflies, Jaap will demonstrate how animals of all kinds - from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars - use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives.
Hear about apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat pathogens. Jaap will explore whether these astonishing behaviours are learned or innate and explain why, now more than ever, we need to apply the lessons from medicating animals - it can pave the way for healthier livestock, more sustainable habitats for wild pollinators, and a host of other benefits.
Join Jaap for a journey into a realm often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.
This event will take place live on Zoom Webinar. You will receive a link to join a couple of days before the event and a reminder an hour before. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function, but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
About the speaker
Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, US, where he is Director of the Infectious Diseases across Scales Training Program, which trains graduate students in interdisciplinary science to study and control infectious disease. He is the author of Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves (Princeton University Press, 2025).
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