The Good Virus: The Mysterious Microbes that Rule Our World, Shape Our Health and Can Save Our Future

Not all viruses are out to get us – in fact, the viruses that do us harm are vastly outnumbered by viruses that can actually save lives.

At every moment, within your body and all around you, trillions of microscopic combatants are fighting an invisible war. Countless times per second, 'good' viruses known as phages are infecting and destroying bacteria. These phages are the most abundant life form on the planet and have an incredible power to heal rather than harm. So why have most of us never even heard of them?

The Good Virus reveals how personalities, power and politics have repeatedly crashed together to hinder our understanding of these weird and wonderful life forms. We explore why Stalin's Soviet Union embraced using phages to fight disease but the rest of the world shunned the idea. We find out why scientists only recently realised phages are central to all ecosystems on Earth. And we meet the often eccentric phage heroes who have shaped the strange history of this field and are unlocking its exciting future.

Faced with the threat of antibiotic resistance, we need phages now more than ever. The Good Virus celebrates what phages could do for us and our planet if they are at last given the attention they deserve.

About the Author

Tom Ireland is a freelance science journalist and award-winning magazine editor. As a freelance journalist he has written science stories for outlets including BBC News, New Scientist and the Observer. He is the editor of The Biologist, the magazine of the Royal Society of Biology. In 2021 he won the Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction for The Good Virus.

Reviews

"Most viruses do no harm to humans - and, as this fascinating book explains, a large class of them might even prove our saviours... [Phages] regulate our gut microbiome, are crucial to marine ecosystems, and inspired the modern Crispr technique of gene-editing ... All this and more is thrillingly recounted in Tom Ireland's superb book. This is real luxury-class science writing, exploring how a "Stalin-tainted" idea from long ago can be rehabilitated, alternating scientist interviews and vivid case studies of miraculous-seeming cures with historical narrative and limpid biotechnological explanations ... He also demonstrates excellent comic timing." —Steven Poole, Telegraph

"This engaging book highlights the brighter side of the viral world... a delight. To learn more about phages is to discover fascinating details about a hidden world... Ireland offers riveting accounts... The Good Virus is timely... It's an exciting time for a field that has, for too long, been unfairly overlooked." ―Nature

"In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the idea of a virus being beneficial may seem strange, even implausible. But science journalist Tom Ireland is admirably determined to show us just how potent this disease-fighting approach can be and to persuade us of its importance. As engaging as it is expansive, The Good Virus describes the distinctive biology and murky history of bacteriophage (generally shortened to 'phage'), a form of life that is remarkably abundant yet obscure enough to have been termed the 'dark matter of biology.'" ―Wall Street Journal

"The Good Virus is a colorful redemption story for the oft-neglected yet incredibly abundant phage, and its potential for quelling the existential threat of antibiotic resistance... Ireland, an award-winning science journalist, approaches the subject of his first book with curiosity and passion, delivering a deft narrative that is rich and approachable... Ireland tells the fascinating story of how phages harvested from German corpses helped the Soviets defeat the Nazis when cholera broke out during the siege of Stalingrad." ―New York Times

Dimensions: 13 x 3.6 x 19.6 cm