Until it was eradicated in 1980 through global-scale public health efforts, naturally occurring smallpox was one of the most dominant drivers of mortality in recorded history, killing 500 million people in the 20th century alone ( Koplow 2003).
So far, humanity has managed to drive only one of its parasites to extinction: Variola, the viral genus that causes smallpox ( Panel 1).
What would happen if all parasites disappeared? This intriguing thought experiment, recently posed in BBC Earth's “Strange & Beautiful” series ( Jones 2015), is a useful exercise for considering the ecological roles of parasites in ecosystems. While many uncertainties exist, the available evidence suggests that a world without parasites would be very different from the world we know, with effects extending from host individuals to populations, communities, and even ecosystems. These hypotheses are largely untested, and should be considered a springboard for future research. We present hypotheses for novel, interesting, and general effects of parasites. While there is robust evidence for the effects of parasites on host individuals (eg affecting host vital rates), this exercise highlights how little we know about the influence of parasites on communities and ecosystems (eg altering energy flow through food webs). Here, we explore a “world without parasites”: a thought experiment for illuminating the ecological roles that parasites play in ecosystems. Although parasite eradications rank among humanity's greatest achievements, new research is shedding light on the collateral effects of parasite loss.
This will save you a considerable amount of money.Parasites have historically been considered a scourge, deserving of annihilation. In addition, people who adopt this lifestyle will be able to do so with only a very small investment and with minimum use of resources. This project hopes to persuade more people to live in the city, without feeling the need to live in a large space. So basically, this parasite house has everything you need to live comfortably.
It has a kitchen, bed, full bathroom, living room and even a small space for storage. To give you an example of a parasite house, there is one created by El Sindicato Arquitectura in Quito, Ecuador, that is the talk of the town. It is a very small house, only 12 m 2, but despite its size, it is suitable for a couple. Flexible job locations force many people to change cities frequently, and this may be the perfect solution for them. A small house can even include a small office or work station, since teleworking and digital life is allowing many people to work from home. These are perfect reasons for many architects to have borrowed the concept, to now apply to our way of living. The way the concept came about has already been discussed, we have spoken of the subject of sustainability, but other important reasons for parasite houses are: high housing prices(especially in large cities), the lack of space and millennials’ low salaries. Narrow alleys in cities can therefore be used to provide extra space for this type of housing.Īnd besides these two locations, a parasite house can also be built in storage facilities, warehouses and empty office buildings. This very small house is built on an existing building, which means that a parasite house can literally be on a roof of a building, but it can also be attached to a wall or in between two walls. The lifestyle really stands out for its modernity and sustainability. This does not automatically mean, however, that the concept is associated with having few financial resources. This type of housing only requires a minimum investment, and its design is also minimal. So the name of this type of housing could not be any more accurate, since the parasite house will be provided with resources (water and electricity) by the bigger, yet existing house. The house then acts as kind of a parasite to survive, at the expense of the other. The idea behind the concept is to provide housing, by building small structures that do not involve big investments and do not need many natural building or energy resources. By building onto and tapping into existing structures, an affordable house can be built that covers an individual’s or couple’s basic living necessities.