Liam Shaw

Riveting … has the essential hallmarks of all good science writing: boundless enthusiasm, ingenious metaphors and the effortless distillation of complex ideas into crisp, clean prose … In combining the passion of Robert Macfarlane with the incisiveness of Patrick Radden Keefe, Shaw has announced himself as a brilliant new voice in science writing

This history of scientific discovery and corporate greed ... chronicles arguably the most significant technological advance of the 20th century ... Shaw’s lively history is a valiant attempt to shine a spotlight on the crisis [of antibiotic resistance] and it's a stark warning of how humanity has squandered a precious resource

Excellent - a highly readable account of scientific success in the past and Big Pharma's egregious inability to deal with the growing problem of antibiotic resistance

Everyone needs to know about antibiotics - the good, the bad and the ugly! This is a brilliant history lesson

A fascinating deep-dive into a medical success story that we take for granted at our peril

An enjoyable and absolutely essential read. The next global pandemic might not be a virus at all – it could be a drug-resistant bacterium, as antibiotics stop working and common infections turn deadly. As Shaw passionately argues in this compelling history, we urgently need a new approach

A terrific history of antibiotics ... Superb. He demonstrates an unusual ability to make science seem not only accessible but also beautiful

Antiobiotics are precious, but we have been reckless with them from the start, argues Liam in Dangerous Miracle, a concise, carefully wrought and engaging history of this essential drug class … Distilling the story of antitbiotics into eleven pithy chapters is not easy, and the strength of Shaw’s approach lies in his choice of the anecdotes that accompany each drug … The point, made vividly throughout this book, is to stop taking them for granted

In Dangerous Miracle, Liam Shaw traces the rise of modern antibiotics, and foresees their decline amidst the ongoing war between bacteria and antibiotic drugs. The central theme is critically important, but Shaw's book is also tremendously entertaining as he describes the origins and development of many of the 'greatest hit' antibiotics that together have saved millions of lives. Well worth reading

Adam Alter, author of Anatomy of a Breakthrough

This enthralling and wonderfully accessibly debut charts the human history of a drug we all rely on but that we are rapidly burning through like a fossil fuel of medicine

The Bookseller, **Top 10 Nonfiction Titles Not to Miss in 2025**

We live in an age when antibiotics are taken for granted and diseases that were once a death sentence are now routinely cured. But they have been around only a few decades and today we face a growing crisis of resistant bacteria due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. This book outlines in wonderful detail what it was like before antibiotics, and how complicated and transformative the discovery of each new antibiotic was. It is a thrilling collection of stories which reminds us of how precious they are, and how important it is to develop new antibiotics to prevent the plagues of the future

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, author of Why We Die

In this eye-opening and thrilling account of the discovery of antibiotics and the global threat of rising resistance, full of striking examples, Shaw brilliantly shows how science has repeatedly been influenced and corrupted by industrial and financial interests. This is not only an important history you never knew, it is also a vital call to arms to change the way that new drugs are discovered. Essential reading for everybody

[Shaw] skilfully blends science and health-writing with history, politics, patent law and more. Crucially, he also shows how antibiotics underpinned the forging of the modern pharmaceutical industry and Big Pharma ... [An] enthralling debut

[Dangerous Miracle] is both a fascinating account of the history behind the drugs that changed medicine and also a sobering warning about their future

An enlightening history of the chequered progress of the war that humanity has waged on bacteria … remarkable

Succeeds brilliantly as an engaging and incisive history of antibiotics, capturing paradigm-shattering breakthroughs and political upheavals ... As history, the book is a triumph. As a roadmap, it left me with questions—and perhaps that is the point

The Extraordinary History of Antibiotics – and How We’re Burning Through Them

‘Riveting … In combining the passion of Robert Macfarlane with the incisiveness of Patrick Radden Keefe, Shaw has announced himself as a brilliant new voice in science writing’ Rachel Clarke, Spectator 
 
Antibiotics. Invented by microbes. Mined by humans. 
 
The discovery of antibiotics is one of humanity’s greatest achievements, saving millions of lives and changing the world forever. 
 
But, unlike other drugs, each time we take antibiotics we use up a finite resource. And now we are running out. 
 
This is the spellbinding story of how we learned to harness the fossil fuels of medicine – and an urgent call to adapt, so they can hold a place in our future. 
 
‘This history of scientific discovery and corporate greed chronicles arguably the most significant technological advance of the 20th century … A lively history and a stark warning’ Sunday Times, Best Books of the Year

Liam Shaw

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