🦠 Microbiology
Plain-language science of the invisible: how microbes live, cause disease and are beaten by your immune system, vaccines and antibiotics.
Viruses: What They Are, How They Infect, How Vaccines Beat Them
Not quite alive, not quite dead — viruses are the smallest and strangest of microbes. Here is how they work and how we fight them.
Read: Viruses: What They Are, How They… →Bacteria: The Good, The Bad, and The Antibiotic Crisis
Most bacteria are harmless or helpful — you carry more of them than your own cells. But the bad ones, and antibiotic resistance, deserve your respect.
Read: Bacteria: The Good, The Bad, and The… →Fungi: The Kingdom Between Plants and Animals
From the penicillin mold to athlete's foot — fungi are everywhere. Learn which are friends, which are foes, and why fungi are closer to you than plants.
Read: Fungi: The Kingdom Between Plants and… →Parasites: The Hitchhikers of the Living World
From malaria to tapeworms — parasites live at someone else's expense. Here is how the big ones spread and how they are beaten.
Read: Parasites: The Hitchhikers of the… →Your Immune System: The Army Inside You
Skin, fever, white blood cells, antibodies, memory — a tour of the layered defence network that keeps you alive every second.
Read: Your Immune System: The Army Inside You →Microbe Hunters: The Story of How We Found the Invisible
From van Leeuwenhoek's lenses to Pasteur, Koch, Fleming and Ehrlich — the 300-year hunt that changed medicine forever.
Read: Microbe Hunters: The Story of How We… →Germ Theory of Disease: The Idea That Saved Billions
Once people believed disease came from "bad air" and evil humours. The germ theory changed everything — here is what it is and why it matters.
Read: Germ Theory of Disease: The Idea That… →