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Dangerous Miracle: The Astonishing Rise and Looming Disaster of Antibiotics
Oxford University biologist Liam Shaw tells the fascinating history of antibiotics—and how we burned through them.
The discovery of antibiotics was one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Since their advent less than a century ago, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, marking one of the greatest medical advances in our history. But much like oil in the previous century, they were not invented but discovered—the most effective antibiotics were found in nature, made by microbes. Antibiotics have been a cheap everlasting fuel that has powered modern medicine, but at a cost. For antibiotics aren’t like other drugs. Every time we used them, we increased the possibility of antibiotic resistance emerging. Every time we used them, we were risking their future effectiveness. Even if it didn’t seem like it, there was only ever a finite supply. Antibiotics are the fossil fuels of they are “fossil drugs.”
How did we get here? In order to understand the future of antibiotics, we need to understand their past. Dangerous Miracle tells the story of weaving the grand arc of their evolution over millions of years with a history of the past century. Antibiotic resistance shows how easily bacteria have been able to undo human progress. If we want antibiotics to have a future, we need to prepare to adapt accordingly. And fast.
Dangerous Miracle is a revelatory account of the miraculous history and uncertain future of antibiotics from a young and gifted Oxford biologist.
The discovery of antibiotics was one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Since their advent less than a century ago, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, marking one of the greatest medical advances in our history. But much like oil in the previous century, they were not invented but discovered—the most effective antibiotics were found in nature, made by microbes. Antibiotics have been a cheap everlasting fuel that has powered modern medicine, but at a cost. For antibiotics aren’t like other drugs. Every time we used them, we increased the possibility of antibiotic resistance emerging. Every time we used them, we were risking their future effectiveness. Even if it didn’t seem like it, there was only ever a finite supply. Antibiotics are the fossil fuels of they are “fossil drugs.”
How did we get here? In order to understand the future of antibiotics, we need to understand their past. Dangerous Miracle tells the story of weaving the grand arc of their evolution over millions of years with a history of the past century. Antibiotic resistance shows how easily bacteria have been able to undo human progress. If we want antibiotics to have a future, we need to prepare to adapt accordingly. And fast.
Dangerous Miracle is a revelatory account of the miraculous history and uncertain future of antibiotics from a young and gifted Oxford biologist.
- GenresNonfictionScienceHealth
352 pages, Hardcover
Published September 23, 2025
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193 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 1, 2025
Dangerous Miracle: The Astonishing Rise and Looming Disaster of Antibiotics – A Masterful Blend of Science and Urgency
Rating: 4.9/5
Liam Shaw’s Dangerous Miracle is a tour de force that marries the epic saga of antibiotics with a clarion call for action, leaving readers equal parts awestruck and unsettled. As someone who has taken these miracle drugs for granted, this book felt like a bucket of ice water—a jolting reminder that humanity’s greatest medical triumph is also its most precarious.
Why This Book Shines
Shaw reframes antibiotics as fossil drugs—a finite resource we’ve recklessly burned through like fossil fuels. His narrative oscillates between wonder (the serendipitous discovery of penicillin) and horror (the rapid evolution of superbugs), weaving evolutionary biology with sharp socioeconomic critique. The analogy of antibiotics as a non-renewable commodity is brilliant, exposing how overuse in agriculture and medicine mirrors extractive industries. His account of soil microbes’ ancient arms races—the original source of antibiotics—reads like a thriller, revealing nature’s ingenuity long before human intervention.
Emotional Resonance & Intellectual Thrills
This book evoked a rollercoaster of emotions: exhilaration at Alexander Fleming’s moldy petri dish, fury at Big Pharma’s profit-driven abandonment of antibiotic R&D, and dread at the silent pandemic of resistance. Shaw’s prose is lyrical yet urgent—I highlighted passages comparing bacterial evolution to a billion tiny laboratories working around the clock. The chapter on antibiotic resistance in war zones (where fragile medical systems accelerate superbugs) left me haunted. Yet, his cautious optimism about phage therapy and policy reforms kindled hope.
Constructive Criticism
While Shaw excels at diagnosing the problem, the solutions section feels abbreviated. A deeper dive into grassroots activism or global governance (e.g., the WHO’s AMR efforts) would have balanced the doom with actionable hope. The focus on Western narratives also leaves room for perspectives from low-income countries disproportionately affected by resistance.
Final Verdict
Dangerous Miracle is essential reading for scientists, policymakers, and anyone who’s ever popped an antibiotic. It’s not just a history but a manifesto—one that left me side-eyeing my next prescription.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the gifted copy. Shaw’s work is a potent reminder that miracles demand stewardship, not exploitation.
Pair with: The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum and I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong for a full-spectrum view of microbes’ power.
For fans of: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (but for bacteria), Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (but for antibiotics).
Rating: 4.9/5
Liam Shaw’s Dangerous Miracle is a tour de force that marries the epic saga of antibiotics with a clarion call for action, leaving readers equal parts awestruck and unsettled. As someone who has taken these miracle drugs for granted, this book felt like a bucket of ice water—a jolting reminder that humanity’s greatest medical triumph is also its most precarious.
Why This Book Shines
Shaw reframes antibiotics as fossil drugs—a finite resource we’ve recklessly burned through like fossil fuels. His narrative oscillates between wonder (the serendipitous discovery of penicillin) and horror (the rapid evolution of superbugs), weaving evolutionary biology with sharp socioeconomic critique. The analogy of antibiotics as a non-renewable commodity is brilliant, exposing how overuse in agriculture and medicine mirrors extractive industries. His account of soil microbes’ ancient arms races—the original source of antibiotics—reads like a thriller, revealing nature’s ingenuity long before human intervention.
Emotional Resonance & Intellectual Thrills
This book evoked a rollercoaster of emotions: exhilaration at Alexander Fleming’s moldy petri dish, fury at Big Pharma’s profit-driven abandonment of antibiotic R&D, and dread at the silent pandemic of resistance. Shaw’s prose is lyrical yet urgent—I highlighted passages comparing bacterial evolution to a billion tiny laboratories working around the clock. The chapter on antibiotic resistance in war zones (where fragile medical systems accelerate superbugs) left me haunted. Yet, his cautious optimism about phage therapy and policy reforms kindled hope.
Constructive Criticism
While Shaw excels at diagnosing the problem, the solutions section feels abbreviated. A deeper dive into grassroots activism or global governance (e.g., the WHO’s AMR efforts) would have balanced the doom with actionable hope. The focus on Western narratives also leaves room for perspectives from low-income countries disproportionately affected by resistance.
Final Verdict
Dangerous Miracle is essential reading for scientists, policymakers, and anyone who’s ever popped an antibiotic. It’s not just a history but a manifesto—one that left me side-eyeing my next prescription.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the gifted copy. Shaw’s work is a potent reminder that miracles demand stewardship, not exploitation.
Pair with: The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum and I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong for a full-spectrum view of microbes’ power.
For fans of: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (but for bacteria), Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (but for antibiotics).
October 11, 2025
Dangerous Miracle The Cure That Became a Reckoning
Liam Shaw’s Dangerous Miracle is part investigative history, part urgent warning, and wholly readable. Shaw charts antibiotics’ arc from miraculous discovery to a burgeoning crisis with a reporter’s knack for narrative and an analyst’s eye for causality. The book succeeds in making microbiology accessible without flattening its complexity, and in exposing the socio-economic drivers—industrial optimism, regulatory lapses, and market incentives—that turned a public health triumph into a slow-moving disaster.
Shaw’s storytelling is both human and systemic. He foregrounds the personalities and moments that shaped antibiotic history—the brilliant accidents, the economic rush, the policy missteps—while threading these through with explanations of resistance mechanisms, usage patterns, and the contemporary stakes. This dual focus keeps the story engaging: the personal vignettes offer emotional entry points, while the explanatory passages arm the reader with understanding.
The book’s urgency is its lifeblood; Shaw writes like someone sounding an alarm. That intensity occasionally trades off with deeper policy analysis. Readers searching for exhaustive blueprints for systemic reform may want more detail on governance models, incentive realignments, or global coordination mechanisms. Yet Shaw’s restraint also sharpens the book’s rhetorical power: it makes the warning portable and urgent rather than bogged down in technocratic minutiae.
Dangerous Miracle is an essential, unsettling read. It reframes antibiotics not as inexhaustible miracle but as a fragile achievement requiring stewardship. Shaw’s narrative compels attention and action: it leaves the reader better informed and a little less complacent, which is precisely its point.
Liam Shaw’s Dangerous Miracle is part investigative history, part urgent warning, and wholly readable. Shaw charts antibiotics’ arc from miraculous discovery to a burgeoning crisis with a reporter’s knack for narrative and an analyst’s eye for causality. The book succeeds in making microbiology accessible without flattening its complexity, and in exposing the socio-economic drivers—industrial optimism, regulatory lapses, and market incentives—that turned a public health triumph into a slow-moving disaster.
Shaw’s storytelling is both human and systemic. He foregrounds the personalities and moments that shaped antibiotic history—the brilliant accidents, the economic rush, the policy missteps—while threading these through with explanations of resistance mechanisms, usage patterns, and the contemporary stakes. This dual focus keeps the story engaging: the personal vignettes offer emotional entry points, while the explanatory passages arm the reader with understanding.
The book’s urgency is its lifeblood; Shaw writes like someone sounding an alarm. That intensity occasionally trades off with deeper policy analysis. Readers searching for exhaustive blueprints for systemic reform may want more detail on governance models, incentive realignments, or global coordination mechanisms. Yet Shaw’s restraint also sharpens the book’s rhetorical power: it makes the warning portable and urgent rather than bogged down in technocratic minutiae.
Dangerous Miracle is an essential, unsettling read. It reframes antibiotics not as inexhaustible miracle but as a fragile achievement requiring stewardship. Shaw’s narrative compels attention and action: it leaves the reader better informed and a little less complacent, which is precisely its point.
July 7, 2025
I loved this book. It was a gripping story that covered the science, economics, business, and politics of antibiotics and their availability. Overall the tone of the book was conversational but with a literary twist that made the book a pleasure to read. Dr. Shaw made good use of analogies to explain some points, but at all times the science was very well explained. The book also used some humour to great effect. Overall, this is a great read. Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the digital review copy.
November 21, 2025
A really wonderful book. Goes through the history of antibiotics in a very simple and clear way from penicillin to what the future holds. Can think of at least two people who will be getting this for Christmas.
October 3, 2025
Meticulous research on the rise and potential fall of antibiotics . Quite concerning to read and makes you realise we are all at the behest of big Pharma.
December 15, 2025
Fascinating history of science!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews