Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and bestselling writer of mysteries and thrillers. His books are fast-paced, character-centered stories in which things are not always as they seem. The backdrop for the books is the modern world. Technology is everywhere. Everything moves at lightning speed, from conspiracy, to love, business, and violence. Technology is our slave. Or has it become our dark master?
The books relate to Matt's journalism. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for a series of stories on distracted driving. The next year, he wrote an acclaimed series for the New York Times called "Your Brain On Computers" exploring how heavy technology use impacts our behavior and our brains.
Matt lives with his family in San Francisco. He writes from an office with a window that looks onto the former house of baseball legend Willie Mays. He -- Matt, not Willie -- is an avid tennis player, takes pride in making guacamole and coffee, and writes the occasional song.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A grand tour of the human immune system and the secrets of health, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist
“One of those rare nonfiction books that transcends the genre. ... Extraordinary.” —Douglas Preston
A terminal cancer patient rises from the grave. A medical marvel defies HIV. Two women with autoimmunity discover their own bodies have turned against them. Matt Richtel's An Elegant Defense uniquely entwines these intimate stories with science’s centuries-long quest to unlock the mysteries of sickness and health, and illuminates the immune system as never before.
The immune system is our body’s essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. Its legion of microscopic foot soldiers—from T cells to “natural killers”—patrols our body, linked by a nearly instantaneous communications grid. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats.
For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition—hallmarks of modern life—and even by excessive hygiene. Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of autoimmune disorders.
Richtel effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to the cutting-edge laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology—perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time. The foundation that Richtel builds makes accessible revelations about cancer immunotherapy, the microbiome, and autoimmune treatments that are changing millions of lives. An Elegant Defense also captures in vivid detail how these powerful therapies, along with our behavior and environment, interact with the immune system, often for the good but always on a razor’s edge that can throw this remarkable system out of balance.
Drawing on his groundbreaking reporting for the New York Times and based on extensive new interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Matt Richtel has produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom illuminates an essential facet of our “elegant defense.”
發表於2025-02-11
An Elegant Defense 2025 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
二零二零年,一場突如其來的疫情,或者說全球大流行襲來,不僅讓許多人被迫待在傢中,社交隔離,而且殘酷地奪去瞭許許多多普通人的生命。在病毒感染的人數逐漸攀升的時候,公眾想知道的是,我們要用什麼手段對抗這種病毒,是抗生素,還是得迅速找到的特效藥?但是,醫學界給齣...
評分1、關於“和諧與穩態”:免疫係統的使命就像是在深淵之上走鋼絲,險象環生。免疫係統必須應對三大挑戰:敵人的可變性、中樞循環係統在幾秒鍾內便能將血液輸送到全身的高效性,以及治愈的需求。免疫係統必須在不過激的情況下完成這一切,以免在這個過程中誤傷我們。免疫係統的故...
評分 評分I have been curious about the immune system for a long time. It is not only one of the hottest research topics nowadays, but also a subject I cannot ignore - my family is suffering from an autoimmune disease. I want to master this subject systematically, bu...
評分圖書標籤:
“Instead of changing the tumor, the researchers added antibodies to interrupt cancer’s trick and stimulate a response from the immune system. Specifically, they inserted an antibody that bound to the immune system so that it would take off the brakes in our elegant defense.” 偉大的發現,癌癥治療從思維上的重大突破
評分Biggest takeaway - There's no way to boost your immunity but to balance it.
評分人體好神奇,病毒入侵,健康細胞就會release interferon,interferon的副作用就是讓你精疲力竭,你的身體就鼓勵自己要休息,然後這樣就會增強防禦能力。反正記住everything's connected.該吃吃該睡睡,身體最重要嗷~
評分人體好神奇,病毒入侵,健康細胞就會release interferon,interferon的副作用就是讓你精疲力竭,你的身體就鼓勵自己要休息,然後這樣就會增強防禦能力。反正記住everything's connected.該吃吃該睡睡,身體最重要嗷~
評分補碼。 相較於其他醫生本人寫的書,這本科普得更具有可讀性。 總結下來就是吃看得見原材料的食物,堅持運動,我們能做的,似乎也就這麼多。
An Elegant Defense 2025 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載