The Good Virus: The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage

by Tom Ireland

Overview

How a mysterious, super-powerful—yet long-neglected—microbe rules our world and can rescue our health in the age of antibiotic resistance.

At every moment, within our bodies and all around us, trillions of microscopic combatants are waging a war that shapes our health and life on Earth. Countless times per second, viruses known as phages attack and destroy bacteria while leaving all other life forms, including us, unscathed. Vastly outnumbering the viruses that do us harm, phages power ecosystems, drive evolutionary innovation, and harbor a remarkable capacity to heal life-threatening infections when conventional antibiotics fail. Yet most of us have never heard of them, thinking of viruses only as enemies to be feared. The Good Virus prompts us to reconsider, and to discover, how these viruses could save countless lives if we can learn to harness their extraordinary abilities.

Taking us inside the ongoing quest to use phages’ powers for good, Tom Ireland introduces us to the brilliant, often eccentric, scientists who have fought to realize phages’ potential in the face of doubt and political intrigue. We meet the renegade French-Canadian scientist who discovered phages and pioneered their use as medicine over a century ago, leading them to be hailed as the world’s first genuine antibiotic years before penicillin. We learn why, in some pockets of the former Soviet Union, drinking a vial of phages remains as common as taking an over-the-counter drug. We follow the intrepid scientists and doctors now racing to make “phage therapy” work worldwide as the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria grows ever more urgent—even as other researchers uncover how phages bolster our everyday immunity, help generate the oxygen we breathe, and furnish the origins for breakthrough technologies like CRISPR.

Unveiling the hidden rulers of the microbial world and celebrating the surprising power of viruses to heal, not harm, The Good Virus forever changes how we see nature’s most maligned life forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324050834
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/15/2023
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	159,615
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Tom Ireland is an award-winning science journalist and editor of the Biologist magazine. He regularly contributes to BBC Science Focus and has written for the Guardian, New Scientist, and BBC News. He lives in Hertfordshire, England.

Editorial Reviews

06/05/2023

Tiny viruses that prey on bacteria could open a new front against infectious disease, according to this fascinating primer. Journalist Ireland’s debut recaps the discovery of bacteriophages—“viruses that infect and kill bacteria” but are “essentially harmless to humans”—and details efforts stretching back a century to put them to use against harmful pathogens. Injecting or brushing phages on wounds has shown efficacy in curing dysentery and antibiotic-resistant infections, but large-scale deployment has proven difficult because phages are finicky about which bacterial strains they’ll eat and bacteria sometimes develop resistance to phages during treatment. Politics also stymied the therapy’s development, according to Ireland, who suggests that English-language scientists viewed it skeptically because they disregarded promising findings published in French, Georgian, and Russian journals and because the treatment’s most prominent innovators hailed from the Soviet Union. Ireland keeps the science lucid and entertaining in a narrative that’s full of colorful characters—in 1919, French microbiologist Felix d’Hérelle checked the safety of his phage elixir by swigging some himself before dosing his patient—and vivid prose: “The plates, where there was once a dense, healthy lawn of Shigella bacteria, would resemble a microbial killing field, covered in holes where the tiny epidemics were spreading.” The result is a captivating portrait of an overlooked remedy. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"It is rare to find such a rich seam of science that is so pertinent to modern health concerns yet feels so underrecognized. Everybody knows about good bacteria, but I doubt they have heard of good viruses (I hadn’t). . . . This book is full of gems of information and hope for the future."

Suzanne O’Sullivan

"A colorful redemption story for the oft-neglected yet incredibly abundant phage. . . . 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."

The New York Times Book Review - Alex Johnson

"Incredibly timely."

Science - Adrian Woolfson

"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 - David A. Shaywitz

"A fascinating and absorbing guide to this abundant but rarely studied life form, The Good Virus takes us through the discovery of bacteriophages and their use in laboratory research, and highlights their increasingly likely future as a weapon against antibiotics-resistant bacteria."

Sarah Gilbert

2023-05-09
An enthusiastic account of organisms that silently rule the Earth.

Viruses are “smaller than the wavelength of light,” and they replicate by invading a cell, multiplying, and then leaving, often killing the cell. A minuscule fraction cause human disease—polio, measles, flu, Covid-19, some cancers—but most are benign and often an essential part of life. Human viruses receive plenty of attention, but science journalist Ireland hits pay dirt by focusing on those that attack bacteria. Called bacteriophages or “phages,” they often attack deadly human infections. In 1917, scientists discovered that certain liquids, filtered to remove bacteria, destroyed bacterial cultures. They theorized that the fluid contained viruses that were “too small to see with a light microscope.” Researchers took up the idea of using these liquids to treat human infections. “For a few decades in the early twentieth century,” writes the author, “the world went mad for phages, and phage therapy was everywhere.” But phages are tricky. Some are weakly infectious; others are “hyper-specific, targeting only particular strains.” At the time, technology was primitive, and governments were lax about preclinical testing. By the 1930s, antibiotics appeared, miraculous drugs that made infections vanish. Sadly, by the 1990s, their vast overuse in medicine and agriculture was producing a deadly epidemic of increasingly resistant and even entirely impervious bacteria. Inevitably, this revived interest in phages. Both optimistic and realistic, Ireland writes that designing a phage for a specific bacterial strain is more complex than developing an antibiotic, and clinical trials have proven frustrating and expensive. He describes dramatic cures but no breakthroughs so far. At the halfway point of the book, the author rewinds the clock to the 1930s, describing genetic and DNA–related phage research that has led to numerous Nobel Prizes and an ongoing scientific revolution that has extended from the discovery of the double helix to genetic engineering, cloning, and insights into the nature of life itself.

A capably guided tour of a scientific wave of the future.

Kirkus Reviews

"A new scientific frontier which 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

"An enthralling, meticulously researched book that will change the way you think about not only viruses, but also the science behind discovery and rediscovery."

Steffanie Strathdee

"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."

Matthew Cobb

"A masterful blend of jaw-dropping science and absorbing storytelling.… This book reminds us of the missed opportunities we simply cannot afford to miss again."

George McGavin

"Incredible and thought-provoking. Phages are the superheroes of the human biome. A truly enlightening read that makes you realize what we really don’t yet know."

Sue Black