Read Of The Week (Oct 10 to Oct 16)

Nature wants you dead. Not just you, but your children and everyone you have ever met and everyone they have ever met; in fact, everyone. It wants you to cough and sneeze and poop yourself into an early grave. It wants your blood vessels to burst and pustules to explode all over your body. And — until recently — it was really good at doing this…

Covid-19 may be only the first of many modern pandemics. The subject of infection and how to fight it grows more urgent every day. How do pathogens cause disease? And what tools can we give our bodies to do battle?

Dr John S Tregoning has dedicated his career to answering these questions. 'Infectious' uncovers fascinating success stories in immunology and virology, making this book not only a vital overview of infection, but also a hopeful story of ongoing human ingenuity. Dr Tregoning is a scientist and researcher whose work focuses on how viruses and bacteria infect the lungs. He is currently reader in respiratory infections at Imperial College London, where he also runs a research group on infectious diseases. John has published over 60 academic papers and has a regular column in Nature.