Nature and Science
February 2018
Focus on: Little Things
The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis
by Thomas Goetz

Starring: German physician Robert Koch, who isolated the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who applied his own medical training (and innate skepticism) to investigating the "cure" Koch subsequently claimed to have found.

For fans of: Medical histories with a dash of mystery, such as Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, about a deadly cholera epidemic in Victorian London.
Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili

What it's about: the nascent field of quantum biology, which applies principles of quantum mechanics to biological processes, ranging from our sense of smell (olfaction) to bird migration, which relies on the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field (magnetoreception). 

Read it for: the way the authors -- a theoretical physicist and a molecular biologist -- make a complex and challenging topic accessible to non-scientists.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
by Ed Yong

Introducing: the microbiome, a complex ecosystem of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microscopic organisms living in and on our bodies.

Why you should read it: Science writer Ed Yong's accessible field guide to
microorganisms reveals that they're more than just germs to be wiped out -- they form communities that help our bodies function, making them a promising subject for medical research.

You might also like: Rob Dunn's The Wildlife of Our Bodies or Rodney Dietert's The Human Super-Organism.
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