Böcker av Matt Richtel

"A groundbreaking narrative exploration of the human immune system--the key to human health and longevity--from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and acclaimed author of A Deadly Wandering"--

Building off his award-winning New York Times series on the contemporary teen mental-health crisis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter delivers a groundbreaking investigation into adolescence, the pivotal life stage undergoing profound--and often confounding--transformation.The transition from childhood to adulthood is a natural, evolution-honed cycle that now faces radical change and challenge. The adolescent brain, sculpted for this transition over eons of evolution, confronts a modern world that creates so much social pressure as to regularly exceed the capacities of the evolving mind. The problem comes as a bombardment of screen-based information pelts the brain just as adolescence is undergoing a second key change: puberty is hitting earlier. The result is a neurological mismatch between an ultra-potent environment and a still-maturing brain that can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. It is a crisis that is part of modern life but can only be truly grasped through a broad, grounded lens of the biology of adolescence itself. Through this lens, Richtel shows us how adolescents can understand themselves, and parents and educators can better help.For decades, this transition to adulthood has been defined by hormonal shifts that trigger the onset of puberty. But Richtel takes us where science now understands so much of the action is: the brain. A growing body of research that looks for the first time into budding adult neurobiology explains with untold clarity the emergence of the "social brain," a craving for peer connection, and how the behaviors that follow pave the way for economic and social survival. This period necessarily involves testing--as the adolescent brain is programmed from birth to take risks and explore themselves and their environment--so that they may be able to thrive as they leave the insulated care of childhood. Richtel, diving deeply into new research and gripping personal stories, offers accessible, scientifically grounded answers to the most pressing questions about generational change. What explains adolescent behaviors, risk-taking, reward-seeking, and the ongoing mental health crisis? How does adolescence shape the future of the species? What is the nature of adolescence itself?

From New York Times reporter Matt Richtel comes a psychological thriller that establishes him as 'the bard of the iPod generation'.

National Bestseller"Gives you all the context you need to understand the science of immunity. ... An Elegant Defense left me with [a] sense of awe.? ?Bill Gates, Gates Notes Summer Reading ListThe Pulitzer Prize?winning New York Times journalist "explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system" (Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books)From New York Times science journalist Matt Richtel, An Elegant Defense is an acclaimed and definitive exploration of the immune system and the secrets of health. Interweaving cutting-edge science with the intimate stories of four individual patients, this epic, first-of-its-kind book ?give[s] lay readers a means of understanding what's known so far about the intricate biology of our immune systems? (The Week).The immune system is our body's essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats. For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition?hallmarks of modern life?and even by excessive hygiene. Paradoxically, it is a fragile wonder weapon that can turn on our own bodies with startling results, leading today to epidemic levels of autoimmune disorders.An Elegant Defense effortlessly guides readers on a scientific detective tale winding from the Black Plague to twentieth-century breakthroughs in vaccination and antibiotics, to today's laboratories that are revolutionizing immunology?perhaps the most extraordinary and consequential medical story of our time. Drawing on extensive new interviews with dozens of world-renowned scientists, Richtel has produced a landmark book, equally an investigation into the deepest riddles of survival and a profoundly human tale that is movingly brought to life through the eyes of his four main characters, each of whom illuminates an essential facet of our ?elegant defense.?