The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing your body's natural defences

Fiendishly complex but endlessly fascinating, the human body’s response to disease is one of the most studied systems in medicine. Whenever we get ill or wounded, an intricate network of cells and chemical pathways spring to our defence, working to strike down invading germs or attack growing tumours.

Immunologist Daniel Davis likens studying the immune system to studying the stars and galaxies that make up our universe. His latest book provides an overview of different pieces of the puzzle, and the process by which they were discovered by pioneering scientists over the decades, from the first crude ‘clinical trials’ on smallpox inoculation in the 1720s right up to cutting-edge breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy. Reading it will give you an idea of just how complicated our ‘galaxy within’ can be.