DEADLY PARTNERS. How microbes shaped our history

DEADLY PARTNERS. How microbes shaped our history

Prologue: Panagiotis Arkoumaneas, president of EODY

The DEADLY PARTNERS. How microbes shaped our history reveals the interconnected course of microbes and man in human history. It is a version of THExford University Press

GERMS. They were here long before us. The history of man has always been inextricably linked with the history of microbes. They live among us constantly evolving, shaping our culture through infections, diseases and pandemics.

At the same time, our ever-changing and complex culture, with our domesticated animals, crowded cities, wars, and busy trade routes, has in turn influenced the evolutionary course of microbes. Microbial infections have decimated populations and profoundly shaped human history – and as we change our attitude and behavior towards them, the microbes change theirs.

Combining evidence of devastating epidemics with comprehensible scientific information and exciting historical flashbacks, beginning with a dramatic account of the epidemic SARS at the beginning of the 21st century, Dorothy H. Crawford it takes us back in time to trace the intertwining course of microbes and man. The author offers us a modern look at ancient plagues and epidemics, identifying pivotal changes in the way people live. Proving to us that our current lifestyles are once again putting us at risk, he questions whether we could ever completely thwart microbes or whether we should develop a more microbiocentric view of the world. Among the possible answers, one thing becomes clear: despite our modern understanding of them and all our successes in taming them, we will never be rid of our deadly companions.

H  Dorothy H. Crawford she is a professor emeritus Medical Microbiology in the University of Edinburgh and served as deputy director for Public Understanding of Medicine in the period 2007-2012. Since 2001 he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and her of the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences, while in 2005 he received the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine and education. He has written among others: The Invisible Enemy: A natural history of viruses, Viruses: A very short introduction, Virus Hunt: The search for the origin of HIV, Cancer Virus: The story of Epstein-Barr virus and Ebola: Profile of a killer virus (all from Oxford University Press).

Read an excerpt from the foreword of the president of EODY, Mr. Panagiotis Arkoumaneas, here.