A review by llmacrae
Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive, by Philipp Dettmer
5.0
“Most of us never really stop to ask: What even is our immune system? Second only to the human brain in its complexity, it is one of the oldest and most critical facets of life on Earth. Without it, you would die within days.”
And also, if it goes wrong, it can kill you in about fifteen minutes.
So there’s that.
I love fantasy. It is my perfect escape and often my go-to for a new book. Earlier this year, I discovered I like some flavours of sci-fi, too.
Outside of reading, documentaries are my all-time favourite things to watch. The sciences, in particular, especially anything to do with the natural world. Biology and psychology are two of my favourite subjects and I love learning more about how we work and how the world works.
This fantastic book merges all three loves into something absolutely riveting. It’s made by the creator of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, which is one my my favourite YouTube channels of all time, and makes already interesting science-y stuff EVEN more interesting - especially with easy to understand concepts, palatable language, and a good dose of humour.
I do have an AS level in Biology and I knew the basics of cells and our immune system, but this absolutely fabulous book taught me so much more. As it repeatedly says, everything in the book is simplified and made easier for anyone to pick up and understand. The complexity of the immune system and immunology as a branch of science cannot be overstated.
It was such an incredible journey.
It doesn’t read like a novel, but the way it is written is a very storytelling style, which is highly enjoyable and engaging. The illustrations are wonderful, and if you have seen any of the Kurzgesagt videos, they’ll be familiar. They also work well to break up the text and show more insight as to what’s being discussed.
I actually took a break from a dense, epic fantasy to read this. That is how engaging the book is despite the very complicated subject matter. So please do not be intimidated by the subject matter or the fact it is non-fiction!
I had no idea about so many of the concepts, and even the ones I had a passing familiarity with were greatly expanded. Our immune system is something I feel more of us should know more about, and this book is a great way to bridge that gap. It’s something I think people would love to read and perhaps should read to learn more about what goes on inside of us.
There were a ridiculous amount of poignant lines, paragraphs (and entire chapters, to be fair), and it is laid out in an exciting, easy-to-understand, way that leads easily from one thing to the next.
One of the many footnotes that particularly struck a chord with me was:
“What is generally troubling about these appeals to naturalism is the idea itself, that something natural is somehow better. Nature does not care about you or any individual at all. Your brain and body and immune system are built on the bones of billions of your would-be ancestors who were not fast enough to escape a lion, were killed by a mild infection, or were just a little worse at pulling the nutrients from their food.
Nature gave us charming diseases like smallpox, cancer, rabies, and parasitic worms that feast on the eyes of your children. Our ancestors fought tooth and nail to build a different world for themselves, a world without all this suffering and pain and horror. And consequently we should celebrate and marvel at the enormous progress we’ve made as a species.
While we obviously still have a long way to go and the modern world has a lot of downsides, the notion that “natural is better” is something only people who are not actually living in nature can say, and who have forgotten why our ancestors worked so hard to escape it.”
Overall, a fantastic read. I’ve loved the Kurzgesagt channel for a number of years, and when I saw they were releasing a book, I absolutely wanted to support it. Now I’m recovering from a week-long illness, it felt quite apt to being reading this!
Highly, highly recommend both this, and the YouTube channel!
And also, if it goes wrong, it can kill you in about fifteen minutes.
So there’s that.
I love fantasy. It is my perfect escape and often my go-to for a new book. Earlier this year, I discovered I like some flavours of sci-fi, too.
Outside of reading, documentaries are my all-time favourite things to watch. The sciences, in particular, especially anything to do with the natural world. Biology and psychology are two of my favourite subjects and I love learning more about how we work and how the world works.
This fantastic book merges all three loves into something absolutely riveting. It’s made by the creator of Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, which is one my my favourite YouTube channels of all time, and makes already interesting science-y stuff EVEN more interesting - especially with easy to understand concepts, palatable language, and a good dose of humour.
I do have an AS level in Biology and I knew the basics of cells and our immune system, but this absolutely fabulous book taught me so much more. As it repeatedly says, everything in the book is simplified and made easier for anyone to pick up and understand. The complexity of the immune system and immunology as a branch of science cannot be overstated.
It was such an incredible journey.
It doesn’t read like a novel, but the way it is written is a very storytelling style, which is highly enjoyable and engaging. The illustrations are wonderful, and if you have seen any of the Kurzgesagt videos, they’ll be familiar. They also work well to break up the text and show more insight as to what’s being discussed.
I actually took a break from a dense, epic fantasy to read this. That is how engaging the book is despite the very complicated subject matter. So please do not be intimidated by the subject matter or the fact it is non-fiction!
I had no idea about so many of the concepts, and even the ones I had a passing familiarity with were greatly expanded. Our immune system is something I feel more of us should know more about, and this book is a great way to bridge that gap. It’s something I think people would love to read and perhaps should read to learn more about what goes on inside of us.
There were a ridiculous amount of poignant lines, paragraphs (and entire chapters, to be fair), and it is laid out in an exciting, easy-to-understand, way that leads easily from one thing to the next.
One of the many footnotes that particularly struck a chord with me was:
“What is generally troubling about these appeals to naturalism is the idea itself, that something natural is somehow better. Nature does not care about you or any individual at all. Your brain and body and immune system are built on the bones of billions of your would-be ancestors who were not fast enough to escape a lion, were killed by a mild infection, or were just a little worse at pulling the nutrients from their food.
Nature gave us charming diseases like smallpox, cancer, rabies, and parasitic worms that feast on the eyes of your children. Our ancestors fought tooth and nail to build a different world for themselves, a world without all this suffering and pain and horror. And consequently we should celebrate and marvel at the enormous progress we’ve made as a species.
While we obviously still have a long way to go and the modern world has a lot of downsides, the notion that “natural is better” is something only people who are not actually living in nature can say, and who have forgotten why our ancestors worked so hard to escape it.”
Overall, a fantastic read. I’ve loved the Kurzgesagt channel for a number of years, and when I saw they were releasing a book, I absolutely wanted to support it. Now I’m recovering from a week-long illness, it felt quite apt to being reading this!
Highly, highly recommend both this, and the YouTube channel!