The Good Virus - The Untold Story of Phages: The Most Abundant Life Forms on Earth and What They Can Do For Us
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| Verlag | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Auflage | 2023 |
| Seiten | 400 |
| Format | 15,2 x 3,4 x 23,2 cm |
| Gewicht | 486 g |
| Artikeltyp | Englisches Buch |
| EAN | 9781529365252 |
| Bestell-Nr | 52936525UA |
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY WATERSTONES AND THE TIMES
'Superb ... This is luxury-class science writing'
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5_ review
'One of the best books of any genre that I've read in 2023, this superbly-written book ... will fascinate absolutely everyone'
FORBES
'A delight. To learn more about phages is to discover fascinating details about a hidden world'
NATURE
__________
Not all viruses are out to get us - in fact, the viruses that do us harm are vastly outnumbered by viruses that can actually save lives.
At every moment, within your body and all around you, trillions of microscopic combatants are fighting an invisible war. Countless times per second, 'good' viruses known as phages are infecting and destroying bacteria. These phages are the most abundant life form on the planet and have an incredible power to heal rather than harm. So why have most of us never even heard of them?
The Good Virus reveals how personalities, power and politics have repeatedly crashed together to hinder our understanding of these weird and wonderful life forms. We explore why Stalin's Soviet Union embraced using phages to fight disease but the rest of the world shunned the idea. We find out why scientists only recently realised phages are central to all ecosystems on Earth. And we meet the often eccentric phage heroes who have shaped the strange history of this field and are unlocking its exciting future.
Faced with the threat of antibiotic-resistance, we need phages now more than ever. The Good Virus celebrates what phages could do for us and our planet if they are at last given the attention they deserve.
Rezension:
Most viruses do no harm to humans - and, as this fascinating book explains, a large class of them might even prove our saviours ... [Phages] regulate our gut microbiome, are crucial to marine ecosystems, and inspired the modern Crispr technique of gene-editing ... All this and more is thrillingly recounted in Tom Ireland's superb book. This is real luxury-class science writing, exploring how a "Stalin-tainted" idea from long ago can be rehabilitated, alternating scientist interviews and vivid case studies of miraculous-seeming cures with historical narrative and limpid biotechnological explanations ... He also demonstrates excellent comic timing. Steven Poole Telegraph
