Granting Immunity*

“Diversity or die” could be your new health mantra. Don’t boost your immune system, cultivate it! Like a garden, your body’s defenses benefit from species diversity. Find out why multiple strains of microbes, engaged in a delicate ballet with your T-cells, join internal fungi in combatting disease. Plus, global ecosystems also depend on the diversity of its tiniest members; so what happens when the world’s insects bug out?

Guests:

• Matt Richtel – Author, most recently, of “An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of The Immune System”
• Rob Dunn – Biologist and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University. Author of “Never Home Alone”
• David Underhill – Professor of medicine, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, California
• Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson – Professor in conservation biology at the Institute for Ecology and Nature Management at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Author of “Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects”

Originally aired August 12, 2019

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Big Picture Science Show