Tuesday, May 20, 2025 7:00 PM

Location:
Manuel’s Tavern
602 North Highland Avenue NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30307

The astonishing story of how animals use medicine and what it can teach us about healing ourselves.

A Cappella Books is delighted to welcome Emory University biologist and author Jaap de Roode to Manuel's Tavern to discuss his groundbreaking new book, “Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves.”

This event is free and open to the public. Copies of “Doctors by Nature” will be available for purchase.

About the Book

Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature’s pharmacy to heal themselves. "Doctors by Nature" reveals what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world. In this visionary book, Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows 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, de Roode demonstrates 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. We meet 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. De Roode asks whether these astonishing behaviors are learned or innate and explains 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.

"Doctors by Nature" takes readers 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.

About the Author

Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University, 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.