Fascinating listening again on the New Books Network, and a reminder of how much I was taught in a science degree 30 years ago has totally been swept aside. Makes sense when you think about it – the idea that the immune system acts against “non-self” makes little sense given how much we know about the microbiome – and that the body acts to regulate the balance of that. While thinking of auto-immune diseases as the body “attacking itself” ignores the fact that it needs to do that in cleaning up and tidying damaged cells and tissues all the time.
Whilst I remember being taught only vertebrates had immune systems, it is now clear even single celled organisms have them.
Pradeu suggests an individual is an immunologically unified chimera, and suggests big implications for our understanding of cognition and psychiatric illness.
And – nice! – the e-book is available for free.
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