Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive
Philipp Dettmer is the founder and lead writer of Kurzgesagt, which has over fourteen million followers and one billion views on YouTube.
You awaken with a tickling in your throat. It hurts in your head. You're irritated as you get the kids ready for school and dress for work. Meanwhile, an enormous battle is raging just beneath your skin. Millions of people are fighting and dying so that you can whine as you walk out the door.
But most of us seldom pause to consider: What exactly is our immune system?
It is one of the oldest and most important aspects of life on Earth, second only to the human brain in complexity. You'd die in a matter of days if you didn't have it. Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind YouTube's most popular science channel, takes readers on a journey through the human body's fortress and defenses in Immune. Within us lies a never-ending conflict of epic proportions, full of tales of invasion, strategy, defeat, and great self-sacrifice. In fact, as you were reading this, your immune system most likely recognized and eliminated a cancer cell that had begun to grow in your body.
Each chapter delves into a different aspect of the immune system, including defenses like antibodies and inflammation as well as threats like bacteria, allergies, and cancer, as Dettmer explains why boosting your immune system is a myth, how parasites sneak past your body's defenses, how viruses work, and what happens in your wounds when you cut yourself.
Immune, enlivened by captivating full-color pictures and engrossing narration, transforms immunology, one of the most convoluted, linked, and perplexing topics, into a compelling trip through an amazing alien planet. Immune is a necessary and surprisingly entertaining crash course in what is arguably and increasingly the most important system in the body.
Author: Philipp Dettmer
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Immune-Journey-Mysterious-System-Keeps/dp/0593241312/
Ratings: 4.9 out of 5 stars (from 5270 reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,775 in Books
#3 in Immunology (Books)
#3 in Immune Systems (Books)
#6 in Anatomy (Books)
