Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens
Written by Muhammad H. Zaman
Narrated by Kyle Tait
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Award-winning Boston University educator and researcher Muhammad H. Zaman provides a chilling look at the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explaining how we got here and what we must do to address this growing global health crisis.
In September 2016, a woman in Nevada became the first known case in the U.S. of a person who died of an infection resistant to every antibiotic available. Her death is the worst nightmare of infectious disease doctors and public health professionals. While bacteria live within us and are essential for our health, some strains can kill us. As bacteria continue to mutate, becoming increasingly resistant to known antibiotics, we are likely to face a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions. “It will be like the great plague of the middle ages, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 all combined into a single threat,” Muhammad H. Zaman warns.
The Biography of Resistance is Zaman’s riveting and timely look at why and how microbes are becoming superbugs. It is a story of science and evolution that looks to history, culture, attitudes and our own individual choices and collective human behavior. Following the trail of resistant bacteria from previously uncontacted tribes in the Amazon to the isolated islands in the Arctic, from the urban slums of Karachi to the wilderness of the Australian outback, Zaman examines the myriad factors contributing to this unfolding health crisis—including war, greed, natural disasters, and germophobia—to the culprits driving it: pharmaceutical companies, farmers, industrialists, doctors, governments, and ordinary people, all whose choices are pushing us closer to catastrophe.
Joining the ranks of acclaimed works like Microbe Hunters, The Emperor of All Maladies, and Spillover, A Biography of Resistance is a riveting and chilling tale from a natural storyteller on the front lines, and a clarion call to address the biggest public health threat of our time.
Muhammad H. Zaman
Muhammad H. Zaman, PhD, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University. His work has been published in Nature, Science, and Lancet Planetary Health, among other magazines. In addition, his opinion pieces and columns have appeared in leading newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, the Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report, El País, and Japan Times; on Al Jazeera; at the World Economic Forum; and through dozens of other outlets. He lives with his family in the greater Boston area.
Related to Biography of Resistance
Related audiobooks
Outbreaks and Epidemics: Battling infection from measles to coronavirus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Planet of Viruses: Third Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hacking the Code of Life: How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between Hope and Fear: A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Epidemic: Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Viruses, Pandemics, and Immunity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrobes: The Life-Changing Story of Germs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vaccinated: From Cowpox to mRNA, the Remarkable Story of Vaccines Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dangerous Medicine: The Story Behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saved by Science: The Hope and Promise of Synthetic Biology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cancer in the Family: Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadly Invaders: Virus Outbreaks Around the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patient Zero (Revised Edition): Solving the Mysteries of Deadly Epidemics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenomics: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Social Science For You
The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Cute When You're Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myths of Meritocracy: A Revisionist History Anthology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Biography of Resistance
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The author shows that the pioneers of antibiotic research and pathology were guilty of ethical lapses and that the whole "magic bullet" paradigm was a transitory one, at best. Our contemporary struggle with vaccinating against viruses reminds how vulnerable we are to resistance-building pathogens. Plus, as is pointed out, resistant germs have always existed somewhere. If and when we climb out of the present pandemic abyss, we will still have MRSA and an AB-abusing livestock industry to contend with.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s is equally intriguing and informative, simply a great read.