The Good Virus: The Untold Story of Phages: The Most Abundant Life Forms on Earth and What They Can Do For Us

(Hardback)

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Winner of the Giles St Aubyn Award 2021

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.

Reviews

Incredible and thought provoking. Phages are the superheroes of the human biome. A truly enlightening read that makes you realise what we really don't yet know. -- Professor Dame Sue Black
A new scientific frontier that couldn't be more fascinating or vital. Phages are critical to our health, and the health of the whole planet. Brilliantly written and profound, this book is ahead of the curve and deserves to become a classic. -- Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Secret Body
This thrilling book will amaze you. Viruses have been attacking bacteria since the dawn of time, but in the last century some scientists have been able to enlist them in the fight against bacterial infections. Tom Ireland's limpid writing tells the exciting story of the past and future of "phage therapy", balanced by a sober exploration of the problems involved in turning the good viruses into treatments. Highly recommended. -- Professor Matthew Cobb
A masterful blend of jaw-dropping science and absorbing storytelling shows that we live on a planet run by super-abundant, sub-microscopic biological entities. Besides revealing a fundamental aspect of how life on Earth really works, this book reminds us of the missed opportunities we simply cannot afford to miss again. It is both incredibly well researched and very timely. -- George McGavin
A fascinating and absorbing guide to this abundant but rarely studied life form, the book takes us through the discovery of bacteriophages, their use in laboratory research and highlights their increasingly likely future as a weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. -- Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert
Outstanding. The Good Virus is a fascinating, original and timely work. -- Clive Myrie

Author Bio

Tom Ireland is a freelance science journalist and award-winning magazine editor. Tom's passion for all things microscopic began with him hiding jars of mouldy food around the house as a young child. From microbes to mental health, biohacking to bioethics, Tom specialises in making difficult scientific topics accessible and fun to read. 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.