By Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers (Knopf)
As so many of these books have told us, the similarities between animals and humans are striking. From feeling deep emotions to having complicated political hierarchies, animals show a number of traits that we previously thought only humans were capable of. The question is, what do we do with this kind of information?
Cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz found a unique way of using this knowledge. In 2005, she was called to examine an emperor tamarin at the Los Angeles Zoo. As she studied the monkey’s heart, she came to the realization that it was suffering from the same heart condition as some of her past human patients. Together with science journalist Kathryn Bowers, Natterson-Horowitz set out to document other similarities between animal and human conditions. The result was “Zoobiquity” — an approach to medical care that transcended species and revolutionized the way we look at health. The combination of research has helped develop new ways of treating conditions in both animals and humans — just one more example of the similarities between all of us creatures.
