Dangerous Miracle: A natural history of antibiotics – and how we burned through them

‘A riveting book … 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 are one of humanity’s greatest achievements but our access to them is under threat. Discover their miraculous history – and how we confront their uncertain future. Since their advent, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, marking one of the greatest medical advances in our history. Dangerous Miracle weaves together the grand arc of the evolution of antibiotics over millions of years with a history of the past century: first as we mined the earth for naturally occurring antibiotic molecules, then as we learned to synthesise our own. But like fossil fuels, antibiotics are a finite resource which we’ve regarded as a cheap, everlasting fuel. They are unlike other drugs: every time we use them we increase the possibility of antibiotic resistance emerging, risking their future effectiveness. If we want antibiotics to have a future, we need to prepare to adapt. And fast. ‘Excellent’ HENRY MARSH ‘Brilliant’ TIM SPECTOR ‘Fascinating’ SARAH GILBERT ‘Eye-opening and thrilling’ MATTHEW COBB ‘Absolutely essential’ KATE BINGHAM

About the Author :
Liam Shaw is a biologist researching the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance. For the past four years he has been a Wellcome funded research fellow at the University of Oxford, and he is also currently an honorary research fellow at the University of Bristol. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, Morning Star, and Private Eye. Dangerous Miracle is his first book.

Review :
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 now 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 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