A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System

A New York Times Notable Book, 1997
Library Journal, Best Book of 1997

Beginning with the "occasional miracles" of a mysterious turn-of-the-century cancer vaccine called Coley's toxins, Stephen S. Hall traces the story of how doctors have learned to harness the immune system and its "commotions" to develop a wide array of cutting-edge therapies. Moving deftly between laboratory and bedside, Hall's absorbing narrative navigates the politics of discovery and elucidates the dazzling complexities of the microscope slide, tracking the curiously potent cells and molecules at the heart of the immune response. From the author of "the best book written about the new age of biology" (Nobel laureate Philip Sharp), who "succeeds marvelously in making science accessible to the general reader," (New York Times), this fast-paced account of medicine in the making is part of the Sloan Foundation Technology Book series.

Stephen S. Hall is the author of the critically acclaimed Invisible Frontiers and Mapping the Next Millenium and has written for Science and Health. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter.