National Bestseller
"Gives you all the context you need to understand the science of
immunity. ... An Elegant Defense left me with [a] sense of awe."
--Bill Gates, Gates Notes Summer Reading List
The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist "explicates for
the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system" (Jerome
Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books)
From New York Times science journalist Matt Richtel, An Elegant
Defense is an acclaimed and definitive exploration of the immune system
and the secrets of health. Interweaving cutting-edge science with the
intimate stories of four individual patients, this epic,
first-of-its-kind book "give[s] lay readers a means of understanding
what's known so far about the intricate biology of our immune systems"
(The Week).
The immune system is our body's essential defense network, a guardian
vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and
balance, and keeping us alive. It has been honed by evolution over
millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats. For all its
astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily
compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor
nutrition--hallmarks of modern life--and even by excessive hygiene.
Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own
bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of
autoimmune disorders.
An Elegant Defense effortlessly guides readers on a scientific
detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century
breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to today's laboratories
that are revolutionizing immunology--perhaps the most extraordinary and
consequential medical story of our time. Drawing on extensive new
interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Richtel has
produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest
riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought
to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom
illuminates an essential facet of our "elegant defense."
