Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://littlegreycells.me/
CITY: Edinburgh
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
http://alittlegreycell.blogspot.co.uk/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2009008767
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2009008767
HEADING: Carver, Catherine A.
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100 1_ |a Carver, Catherine A.
670 __ |a Educating your patient with diabetes, c2009: |b t.p. (Catherine A. Carver, MS, APRN, BC, CDE; Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Mass.)
PERSONAL
Children: Beatrix.
EDUCATION:Cambridge University, biology degree; University of Aberdeen, medical degree; Harvard University, M.P.H.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Previously worked at the Wellcome Trust and as a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England.
AWARDS:Frank Knox Fellow, Harvard University.
WRITINGS
Also contributor to the Lancet, Scientific American, Meducation, Mosaic, and the Wellcome Trust blog.
SIDELIGHTS
Catherine Carver studied natural sciences as an undergraduate before going on to study medicine and public health. During her medical studies she spent time in Tanzania working with TB/HIV sufferers. A longtime science writer, Carver is the author of Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You. Carver draws from a wide range of resources, from ancient Egyptian medical texts to new research, to explain how the human immune system works. Writing in the book’s preface, Carver begins by pointing to the exceeding small, micro-sized, and short-lived neutrophil as one of the body’s key defenders against viruses, fungi, infections and host of other invaders that cause damage to the human body. “The human body is like an exceedingly well-fortified castle, defended by billions of soldiers. Some live for less than a day, others remember battles for years, but all are essential in protecting us. This is the hidden army that we all have inside of us, and I’d like to reveal its myriad of miracles and secrets to you.”
Carver begins her book with a look at some of the body’s key defenses, which include mucus, stomach acid, the skin, and various killer cells. She details how these defenses fight off everything from the common cold to deadly infectious diseases. Next, she examines the field of organ transplantation and how it has played a central role in modern science’s understanding of the immune system as medical researchers battled the immune system to prevent the rejection of transplants. Carver includes a chapter on how the human body does need some foreign cells to survive, including a resident host of bacteria. She also presents chapters on sex and pregnancy in relation to the immune system and how the immune system helps the fetus survive in the womb despite the fact that the immune system typically fights off foreign invaders.
Carver delves into the world of parasites, including a parasite that lives in the human brain, and how the immune system develops a host of antibodies. She examines how science has learned to help train immune system cells through advances such as vaccines. A close examination is also made into how the immune system sometimes works against the body, such as in the case of overreacting to common things, which leads to allergies. She also reveals instances in which the immune system turns on the body and attacks it. Other chapters are devoted to some of the immune system’s most nefarious foes, including cancer. She ends with a look at the use of drugs to enhance the immune system and the future of medicine in which the power of the immune system will be further harnessed.
“Carver … transforms a data-heavy research area into an entertainingly informative survey of the immune system,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked: “Not easy going for general readers given the depth, breadth, and detail Carver brings to a complex subject, but credit her for the wits … she uses to enlighten us.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2017, Karen Springen, review of Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You, p. 7.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2017, review of Immune.
Publishers Weekly, September 4, 2017, “On Immunity: Get Informed on How the Immune System and Vaccines Work with These Complementary Titles,” p. 82.
ONLINE
BookBrowse, https://www.bookbrowse.com/ (May 5, 2018), brief author profile.
Mosaic, https://mosaicscience.com/ (May 5, 2018), brief author profile.
Sydney Morning Herald, https://www.smh.com.au/ (January 18, 2018), Fiona Capp, review of Immune.
Catherine Carver is an author, freelance writer and recovering medic and academic, currently based in Edinburgh. She holds a biology degree from Cambridge and a medical degree from Aberdeen, and completed her Master’s degree in public health as a Knox Fellow at Harvard. Her work has been published in Scientific American and Meducation and she was shortlisted for the Guardian’s 2012 Science Writing Prize. Her first book, Immune, is a fun-filled journey of discovery through the immune system, published by Bloomsbury Sigma. She is also kept busy being mummy to Beatrix Carver, Destroyer of Worlds.
Catherine Carver completed her first degree in Natural Sciences before going on to study Medicine at the University of Aberdeen, which included time spent in Tanzania working with TB/HIV sufferers. She's worked at the Wellcome Trust and as a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and studied Public Health at Harvard, where she was a Frank Knox Fellow. Now living in Scotland, Catherine is a seasoned science communicator, and she has written blogs for The Lancet, Scientific American, Meducation, Mosaic and The Wellcome Trust.
Print Marked Items
Immune: How Your Body Defends and
Protects You
Karen Springen
Booklist.
114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p7.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You. By Catherine Carver. Nov. 2017.304p. illus.
Bloomsbury/Sigma, $27 (9781472915115); e-book, $ 15.99 (9781472915146). 616.079.
It's a germy world. Fortunately, as Carver enthusiastically explains, a healthy immune system can battle
countless killers. She starts out strong, explaining that skin, the largest human organ, typically adds about 27
pounds to the body. Who knew? She also spells out how adversaries such as cancer, Ebola, and anthrax can
get the upper hand. Blame the mouth. Public-health expert Carver notes that just one 10-second French kiss
"is thought to transfer 80 million bacteria." All the Ripley's-believe-it-or-not elements in this far-ranging
chronicle are fascinating, if unnerving--for example: China executes more prisoners than any other country
and until 2015 extracted the organs of executed prisoners without consent and distributed them to wealthy
recipients. Overall, she strikes a reassuring tone, noting that, despite relatively limited options for fighting
certain threats, the modern pharmacy "is like a war chest for taking on diseases from cancer to carbuncles."
And while she is no Pollyanna, Carver concludes with a discussion of some promising areas for drug
research that are crucial in an era of antibiotic-resistant infections.--Karen Springen
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Springen, Karen. "Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2017, p. 7.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776026/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d08501a7. Accessed 26 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776026
On immunity: get informed on how the
immune system and vaccines work with
these complementary titles
Publishers Weekly.
264.36 (Sept. 4, 2017): p82.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Immune: How Your Body Defends and Protects You
Catherine Carver. Sigma, $27 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4729-1511-5
Carver, a science writer and researcher in public-health policy at Harvard, transforms a data-heavy research
area into an entertainingly informative survey of the immune system: the "hidden army" that battles diseases
ranging from the common cold to the plague. She starts by identifying immunity's defense system in human
skin, lungs, tears, ears, and the stomach. Carver then moves on to the "killer cells" that destroy infectious
invaders. Her survey explores immunology's role in the "complex challenge" of organ transplantation, as
well as how it keeps people safe from the "bacterial-laden nature" of sex. She dives into humans' age-old
battle with allergies, whether it's hypersensitivity to pollen, peanuts, or pets; unusual reactions, including
one person's to stale pancake mix; and potentially deadly autoimmune diseases that can attack "every part of
the body from knees to nerves, glands to gonads." Though yet-unvanquished cancers continue to evade our
immune system's defenses, Carver remains hopeful about "immune-altering drug discoveries" being made
that could potentially change "the face of medicine" and "cure the incurable." This splendid guide offers
historical and scientific context on a subfield of biology that affects everyone and that is increasingly being
harnessed to improve and save lives. (Nov.)
* Immunization: How Vaccines Became Controversial
Stuart Blume. Reaktion, $30 (288p) ISBN 978-1-78023-837-1
Blume (The Artificial Ear), emeritus professor of science and technology studies at the University of
Amsterdam, grapples with the hot-button topic of immunization programs and public resistance to them in
this persuasive, challenging chronicle of how vaccines improved human health--and the pharmaceutical
industry's bottom line--while failing to address doubts about mass inoculation. He ticks off the triumphs of
inoculation, from Edward Jenner's 1796 discovery of the cowpox vaccine to the 1980 declaration of the
global eradication of smallpox to shots that now control numerous infectious diseases. But Blume also
registers the doubts that have followed vaccination, including modern "vaccine hesitancy." Blume argues
that "declining confidence" in vaccination programs is a public-health problem, but one that won't be solved
with the "concepts of public health." The mistrust "now infects public and political life more generally." In
poor regions parents feel the "mismatch" between well-funded vaccination programs and a failure "to meet
their most basic healthcare needs." Meanwhile, in wealthy nations alarmism has grown regarding the
measles-mumps-rubella vaccine combination and the side effects of pertussis vaccination. Blume's crucial
history illustrates that vaccines have saved countless lives, but they must win the confidence of those who
don't recognize their universal benefit. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"On immunity: get informed on how the immune system and vaccines work with these complementary
titles." Publishers Weekly, 4 Sept. 2017, p. 82. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505468121/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=839a581e.
Accessed 26 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505468121
Carver, Catherine: IMMUNE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Carver, Catherine IMMUNE Bloomsbury Sigma (Adult Nonfiction) $27.00 11, 21 ISBN: 978-1-4729-1511-
5
A British immunologist explores "the incredible arsenal that lives within us and how it kills off a plethora of
diseases, from the common cold to the plague."Currently a health policy researcher at Harvard, Carver
begins with our "innate" immune system, the cells and chemicals that roam the bloodstream or are found on
cell surfaces or in secretions like tears or saliva. They're also in the stomach making hydrochloric acid,
which spells death for invading bacteria, and even populate ear wax, which exists to eliminate bacteria and
remove debris. In the bloodstream, neutrophils and macrophages are on patrol to seek and destroy the
enemy. They are aided by whole families of circulating proteins that are able to destroy invaders as well as a
population of chemical messengers that orchestrate events, including the triggering of inflammation. There
are also inherited proteins that serve as bar codes to tell immune cells to ignore them because they not
foreign. Without that identification or a good match, a transplanted organ will be rejected and necessitate
immunosuppressant drugs. Carver ably explains it all, including why a fetus is not rejected during
pregnancy or why a transplant sometimes attacks its host. The author then moves on to the "adaptive"
immune system, comprised of T cells that learn, remember, and can kill specific pathogens or cancer cells,
and the B cells, which generate disease-specific antibodies. Catastrophe occurs when the immune system
goes into overdrive, which can lead to allergies, autoimmune disease, or even death. Carver agrees that
allergies may be on the rise given the hygiene hypothesis--i.e., our overly sanitized lives. She also decries
the growth of antibiotic resistance. In the final chapter, she points to some new approaches to killing
bacteria, including the use of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, to do the dirty work. Not easy
going for general readers given the depth, breadth, and detail Carver brings to a complex subject, but credit
her for the wits--and wittiness--she uses to enlighten us.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Carver, Catherine: IMMUNE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502192020/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0f96b500.
Accessed 26 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502192020
Immune review: Catherine Carver on how we keep germs out of our bodies
By Fiona Capp18 January 2018 — 4:27pm
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Immune
Catherine Carver
Immune. By Catherine Carver.
Immune. By Catherine Carver.
Photo: Supplied
Bloomsbury, $28
Inside us there is a surveillance network "that would make the NSA green with envy", says Catherine Carver. While the immune system's job is to defend us from outside invaders – bacteria, viruses and parasites, it also contains rogue elements and double agents. In this case they take the form of auto-immune responses and mutant cells turned cancerous. Carver's jaunty style and way with metaphors transforms the grim business of self-defence into an informative tale of derring-do. The hero is the neutrophil, a type of white blood cell prepared to die in a "kamikaze blaze of microbe-massacring glory". From gut flora to the impact of sex hormones (testosterone suppresses immune activity, meaning that man-flu might actually be a "thing"), Carver explores the reality behind the fads and fears that govern our understanding of how our body defends us.
quote from preface.