The Beautiful Cure

The New Science of Human Health

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Understand how our immune system fights disease and enables the body to heal itself.

'Thrilling... Reads like the best kind of adventure story' STEPHEN FRY
'Excellent' TIM SPECTOR, Sunday Times bestselling author of Spoon-Fed

Here, Professor Daniel Davis charts the groundbreaking scientific quest to understand how it fights disease and enables the body to heal itself. He explains how it is affected by stress, sleep, age and our state of mind, and reveals how all of this knowledge is now unlocking a revolutionary approach to medicine and well-being.

The Beautiful Cure tells a dramatic story of detective work and discovery, of puzzles solved and of the mysteries that remain, and of lives sacrificed and saved.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

'Wonderful... recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how research into the immune system has resulted in a health revolution' HENRY MARSH

'Thoroughly absorbing... Davis is a wonderful storyteller' BILL BRYSON

Thrilling ... An eye-opening tour de force of scientific writing that reads like the best kind of adventure story
Stephen Fry

Highly readable, beautifully researched, backed up with notes, references and interviews by Davis himself, whose status as an immunology professor confers added credibility. He believes that we now know enough about the major components and interactions of the immune system to begin manipulating them to cure diseases such as cancer. We stand, he predicts, on the threshold of a medical revolution
New Scientist

About Daniel M Davis

Daniel M. Davis is Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London. His previous books include The Beautiful Cure, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and The Secret Body, which was described variously as ‘an inspiration’ by Tim Spector, ‘beautifully rendered’ by Brian Cox and ‘masterful’ by Alice Roberts. Davis has published over 150 research papers and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2025, he was awarded an MBE for services to science communication.

Details

Imprint: Vintage
Published: 07/02/2019
ISBN: 9781784702212
Length: 272 pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm
Weight: 191g
Price: £9.99

All editions

The Beautiful Cure

The New Science of Human Health

Format:

Buy the book from:

Thrilling ... An eye-opening tour de force of scientific writing that reads like the best kind of adventure story

One of the best accounts I have yet come across of the nature of biological science … Daniel Davis’s wonderful book recounts in exceptionally clear and sympathetic prose how research into the immune system has resulted in a health revolution

Thoroughly absorbing ... Davis is a wonderful storyteller

Terrific ... Davis relates the extraordinary modern developments in supercharging the body’s own immune system to fight disease, and one day maybe even eliminate cancer

Thrilling … Do not underestimate the importance of immunology. This field relates to you personally

An inspirational book that not only reveals the secret joys of scientific discovery but is jam-packed full of revelations for non-scientists

Forget AI, robotics, the internet of things. This is where the future feels strange and exciting: in the 'inner universe' of our immune system, and in the radically new therapies that are using it to conquer disease

A sweeping tour d’horizon … lucid and entertaining … Much as Siddhartha Mukherjee did in his book The Gene, Davis expertly weaves together human stories and scientific endeavour

New ways to treat cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other age-related diseases … Davis is a sure and engaging guide to these developments

About Daniel M Davis

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