The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic

"The Ghost Map is a book that I oftentimes give to people to show them how cool and exciting and accessible and gripping stories about scientific discoveries can be. It’s nice in that it’s not a 500 page book that is going to be too heavy to read on your lawn and it totally unfolds like the most exciting thriller. It really does show how the practice of science — which certainly today we mostly think of as occurring in sterile antiseptic labs and people very removed from the stuff of day-to-day life — is not only remarkable and fascinating and life-changing, but also really exciting and kind of cool."

"This holds a similar fascination for me. Johnson looks at London during a specific moment in time, August 1854, and focuses on a particular incident, an outbreak of cholera in Soho, in Central London. Cholera was then all too common. What made this outbreak significant was that it was observed by two people – Henry Whitehead, a Church of England priest, and a prominent doctor called John Snow. Between them, they deduced that cholera was a water-borne illness – not one transmitted through air as had hitherto been believed. With the cause established, steps could be taken to eradicate the disease by dealing with water pollution. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Like White, Johnson describes London in organic terms, drawing linkages between environment, bacteria, people and events. And, like White, he describes matters that have a resonance for those who know Dhaka well. It was here, at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, half a century ago, that they perfected oral rehydration salts as the best method of treating cholera. The disease still afflicts Dhaka’s slums, but survival rates are encouragingly high."