Summer Books

摘要

With the yearly exodus from labs and lecture theatres imminent, Nature's regular reviewers and editors share some tempting holiday reads. The balance of power is key to the body politic. So is the power of balance to the human body. An Epidemic of Absence is filled with the myriad ways in which this balance can be disturbed. Bacteria outnumber our cells by an order of magnitude. Moises Velasquez-Manoff looks at the implications of an even more diverse inner menagerie, linking parasite and microbe eradication to the onset of modern ills. He shows how exposure to malaria may prevent multiple sclerosis, and how the bacterium Helicobacter pylori may reduce the risk of developing certain cancers, while increasing that of others.