Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Dettmer, founder of science education YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, debuts with an immersive primer on immunology. "The immune system is the most complex biological system known to humanity, other than the human brain," Dettmer writes, and in four parts, he outlines the biological components responsible for maintaining human health. He describes immunity basics ("the immune system is a tool to distinguish the other from the self"), covers hygiene and immunoprotection, and breaks down pathogens, viruses, and autoimmune diseases. He also traces the course of an infection that arises from a simple cut as "bacteria spread into the warm caverns between helpless cells," and, as the infection spreads, Dettmer introduces readers to macrophages (the largest immune cells), "suicidal Spartan" neutrophils, and messenger dendritic cells with ease. The author is less than sanguine, meanwhile, on products touted as helping to improve one's immune response: "Boosting the Immune System is a horrible idea that is used by people trying to make you buy useless stuff!" Dettmer does an admirable job of staying out of the weeds, and colorful illustrations bring the whimsy of his YouTube channel to the page. Full of facts and fun, this survey is sure to entertain. Agent: Seth Fishman, the Gernert Company. (Sept.)

Pop science writer Dettmer (creator of the popular YouTube channel Kurzgesagt ["in a nutshell"]) has written a volume explaining human immunity, which works on an extremely complex multi-systemic, even multi-cellular and micro-cellular level. This book makes the topic comprehensible with informal language and metaphors that compare scientific processes to everyday life. Dettmer covers types of cells, cell intelligence, receptors, antigens, T cells, antibodies, infections, vaccines, and ways to boost immunity. The book is heavily illustrated with vivid, full-color images that demystify bacteria, pathogens, and viruses (coronaviruses, influenza, Ebola). Dettmer is always engaging as he explains viral infections and DNA molecules in accessible terms for people of all ages (especially YA readers) and those new to popular science. VERDICT Bringing both insight and humor to an important and relevant topic, Dettmer's book is essential reading, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.--Marcia G. Welsh, formerly at Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Chief Strategy Officer of The Nature Conservancy, Boccaletti blends environmental and social history in Water to show how the distribution of this precious substance has shaped human history, from BCE farm communities along the Tigris-Euphrates river system to today's legal complications over water infrastructure. From Dettmer, founder and head writer of Kurzgesagt, one of the largest science channels on YouTube, comes Immune, everything you ever wanted to know about your absolutely crucial immune system. After his first experience as a doctor in the ICU, longtime critical care doctor Ely became concerned with the physical and emotional impact of ICU stays and in Every Deep-Drawn Breath relates key research he has done in post-intensive care syndrome that has helped improve ICU protocols worldwide (100,000-copy first printing). In Silent Earth, University of Sussex biology professor Goulson aims to show that plummeting insect populations are damaging both the environment and to global food production (50,000-copy first printing). In The Age of A.I., Kissinger joins with technology experts Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher to explore the future of artificial intelligence—the same goal of Lee, a former president of Google China, and leading speculative fiction writer Chen in AI 2041. Beloved science writer Roach's Fuzz considers the sometimes tumultuous intersection of humans and wildlife, as bears amble into campsites and gulls destroy an Easter floral arrangement in St. Peter's Square. Vertebrate zoologist Schutt's Pump moves from the origins of circulation and Aristotle's view that the heart was seat of consciousness to the life-saving blood of horseshoe crabs and work in today's most advanced labs to understand an organ crucial to us all.

Pop science writer Dettmer (creator of the popular YouTube channel Kurzgesagt ["in a nutshell"]) has written a volume explaining human immunity, which works on an extremely complex multi-systemic, even multi-cellular and micro-cellular level. This book makes the topic comprehensible with informal language and metaphors that compare scientific processes to everyday life. Dettmer covers types of cells, cell intelligence, receptors, antigens, T cells, antibodies, infections, vaccines, and ways to boost immunity. The book is heavily illustrated with vivid, full-color images that demystify bacteria, pathogens, and viruses (coronaviruses, influenza, Ebola). Dettmer is always engaging as he explains viral infections and DNA molecules in accessible terms for people of all ages (especially YA readers) and those new to popular science. VERDICT Bringing both insight and humor to an important and relevant topic, Dettmer's book is essential reading, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.—Marcia G. Welsh, formerly at Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Dettmer, founder of science education YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, debuts with an immersive primer on immunology. "The immune system is the most complex biological system known to humanity, other than the human brain," Dettmer writes, and in four parts, he outlines the biological components responsible for maintaining human health. He describes immunity basics ("the immune system is a tool to distinguish the other from the self"), covers hygiene and immunoprotection, and breaks down pathogens, viruses, and autoimmune diseases. He also traces the course of an infection that arises from a simple cut as "bacteria spread into the warm caverns between helpless cells," and, as the infection spreads, Dettmer introduces readers to macrophages (the largest immune cells), "suicidal Spartan" neutrophils, and messenger dendritic cells with ease. The author is less than sanguine, meanwhile, on products touted as helping to improve one's immune response: "Boosting the Immune System is a horrible idea that is used by people trying to make you buy useless stuff!" Dettmer does an admirable job of staying out of the weeds, and colorful illustrations bring the whimsy of his YouTube channel to the page. Full of facts and fun, this survey is sure to entertain. Agent: Seth Fishman, the Gernert Company. (Sept.)