Jaroslav Flegr

Who is Jaroslav Flegr?

Jaroslav Flegr is a professor of biology at Charles University in Prague. He is a parasitologist, evolutionary biologist, the author of the book Frozen Evolution and member of the editorial board of Neuroendocrinology Letters.

His work on the influence of toxoplasmosis infection on personality, sex ratios, and the risks of road accidents, has received substantial media attention, with the work on road accidents being particularly prominent. Flegr has claimed that the infection might increase the number of accidents by as much as one million crashes per year.

His book Frozen Evolution is a science popularization book that aims to achieve three distinct goals. First, it presents the reader with the principles of current evolutionary biology. Second, the book contains sidenotes in graphically distinct boxes that discuss topics important in practitioning of science. These are for example peer review process, scientific journals or citation metrics. Some ideas from philosophy of science like paradigm shift and Occam razor are also mentioned, as is some Fleger's previous research to provide concrete examples.