The Beautiful Cure: Revealing the Immune System’s Secrets and How They Will Lead to a Revolution in Health and Wellness

*A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND NEW SCIENTIST *Shortlisted for the 2018 Royal Society Science Book Prize"The Beautiful Cure brilliantly conveys the excitement of scientific discovery. . . . Thoroughly absorbing. Davis is a wonderful storyteller." —Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything"Written with an irresistible blend of authority, charm and wit, The Beautiful Cure is an eye-opening tour de force of scientific writing that reads like the best kind of adventure story. As David Attenborough opens our goggling eyes to the natural world without, so Daniel Davis brings us face to face to the stunningly clever and—yes—beautiful world within—our immune system. It is a story of scientific leaps of imagination, faith and restless curiosity, one of those books that makes you look at everything human in a new, challenging and thrilling way." —Stephen Fry"New ways to treat cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other age-related diseases. . . . Davis is a sure and engaging guide to these developments" —The Observer (UK)  "An inspirational book that not only reveals the secret joys of scientific discovery but is jam-packed full of revelations for non-scientists" —The Mail on Sunday (UK)"A sweeping tour d’horizon . . . lucid and entertaining. . . . Much as Siddhartha Mukherjee did in his book The Gene, Davis expertly weaves together human stories and scientific endeavor." —The Times (UK)"An elegantly concise book. . . . [The Beautiful Cure] covers a huge amount of factual and conceptual ground while also being a thoughtfully philosophical book about the practice of science itself. . . . [Davis's] book is not only a fascinating but an entertaining read." —The Daily Telegraph (UK)"A terrific book by a consummate storyteller and scientific expert." —The Guardian (UK)"Forget AI, robotics, the internet of things. This is where the future feels strange and exciting: in the 'inner universe' of our immune system, and in the radically new therapies that are using it to conquer disease." —The Sunday Times (UK)"One of the best accounts I have yet come across of the nature of biological science and discovery. . . . Daniel Davis's wonderful book recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how research into the immune system in recent decades has resulted in what amounts to a health revolution" —New Statesman"Any reader completely unfamiliar with the workings of the immune system is likely to be dumbstruck with admiration for its intricacy. . . . Davis's book is full of enlivening little anecdotes." —Literary Review"Highly readable, beautifully researched, backed up with notes, references and interviews by Davis himself, whose status as an immunology professor confers added credibility. He believes that we now know enough about the major components and interactions of the immune system to begin manipulating them to cure diseases such as cancer. We stand, he predicts, on the threshold of a medical revolution." —New Scientist "The Beautiful Cure . . . focuses on the science of immunology itself, taking us through the evolution of the discipline and the stories behind key advances in the field. . . . Davis conveys a visceral appreciation for how messy, and how human, medical science can be." —The Wall Street Journal"Davis leaves readers with a reminder that, for all the scientific innovations described here, the human immune system remains 'far more powerful than any medicine we have devised,' and that sleep, healthy eating, mindfulness and other complementary practices all appear to help. A modern equivalent of Paul de Kruif's 1926 classic, Microbe Hunters, Davis's work is concise and illuminating." —Publishers Weekly"The immune system is already more marvelous, powerful and flexible than any medicine to come out of a laboratory. In this highly readable insider's account of cutting edge research, Daniel Davis reveals how the full potential of the body's defences is now being realized." —Roger Highfield, Director, Science Museum, London"Everyone knows about the double helix, but DNA is simple while bodies, their diseases and their defences are complicated. One of the most complicated parts of all is the immune system, which does its endless and often unnoticed task of keeping us safe against our enemies. This book is an insight into new, remarkable and almost unnoticed advances in immunology and shows how medicine is moving on from the world of the gene to the world of the antibody." —Steve Jones, author of The Language of the Genes"The human body is the most complicated assemblage of chemicals in the known universe. It's a huge scientific challenge to understand how we metabilise, how we acquire immunity and how drugs work. Daniel Davis is a distinguished expert in this field and he's a fine writer too. He portrays vividly how great discoveries emerge—via prolonged effort, via cooperation and competition and sometimes by sheer luck. This gripping book gives an authentic flavour of how science is actually done—and why it's important for humanity's future." —Prof. Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal