This remarkable book spans across several different fields to provide a completely fresh and captivating new perspective on the role of the immune system in our bodies. We got used to think about this system at that of defense only, as a system for fighting bacteria, viruses and other foreign bodies. "Immunity" by Tauber shows that there is so much more to this system: In addition to removing pathogenic microbes, it also interacts with symbiotic bacteria, disposes dead and worn out cells, searches for cancerous cells, and modulates behavior of nerve cells and other bodily cells in a variety of ways. As shown by the author, the immune system does all these different things not to shield us from the foreign but to connect us, harmoniously, to the ecological web of life. Being embedded itself in a complex network of ecological interactions with microbial and somatic cells, the immune system is a system of ecological coordination and ongoing development. From this ecological point of view, the immune system does not defend the body: it *defines* it.
To support this astonishing idea of the immune system as a defining system and not defending system, the author integrates tones of experimental data, historical studies and deep philosophical thinking and shows how our understanding of immunity changes thanks to all these data and evidence. Indeed, once we accept the ecological view of the immune system we can no longer think about immunity as resistance to infection against this or that microbe, it is something else: a capacity to maintain ecological integrity in a particular environmental context. It is hard not to be attracted to the broad ecological thinking about the immune system Tauber is championing. After reading this book, I can't stop thinking about the implications of the ecological perspective for science and for life: enhancing immunity no longer means for me boosting my defenses but flexible adapting to the environment I am in. If you love being provoked by scientific new ideas and want to expand your horizons on the immune system, this book is a must!
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