The Good Virus: The Untold Story of Phages: The Most Abundant Life Forms on Earth and What They Can Do For Us

Synopsis

The untold story of the most abundant life form on Earth, bacteriophages, and how they play a crucial role in our lives, our health and the health of our planet.Winner of the Giles St Aubyn Award 2021Not 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 terrifying threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, 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.(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Copyright:

2023

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781529365276

Related ISBNs:

9781529365245

Publisher:

Hodder & Stoughton

Date of Addition:

06/29/23

Copyrighted By:

Tom Ireland

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Narrated By:

Ben Deery

Categories:

Nonfiction, Science, Medicine

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.