Richtel effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to the cutting-edge laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology-perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time. 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. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats.įor 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.

Its legion of microscopic foot soldiers-from T cells to “natural killers”-patrols our body, linked by a nearly instantaneous communications grid.

The immune system is our body’s essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting viruses and illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. New York Times science reporter Matt Richtel's An Elegant Defense illuminates the human immune system as never before, uniquely entwining intimate patient stories with science’s centuries-long quest to unlock the mysteries of sickness and health. The Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist 'e xplicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system' (Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books) National Bestseller * Essential reading during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic “A deeply reported and entertainingly written exploration of the human immune system and how it works.” - USA Today

An elegant defense by matt richtel