Immunity: the evolution of an idea

In 'Immunity', Alfred Tauber sets forth a new theory of immunology that rejects the common principle of self and non-self, and the immune system's role as a protector of the self from external threats.

Rather than serving to defend an independent entity, he argues, immunity participates in a large, complex eco-system of porous and flexible boundaries.

Tauber's new approach to immunology necessitates a new biology in which symbiosis is the rule, not the exception.