a thermostat. It’s an old one, and thus a dial rather than a digital display. If I turn it down, it sets the temperature of the house at a cool simmer; if I turn it up, it allows a fiery heat to build. Somewhere in the middle, always one tiny adjustment away, is the ideal setting, a point of perfect comfort. The immune system, for all its intricacy, is a lot like that dial. It works like an ‘immunostat’, which, rather than stabilising temperature, stabilises our relationships with our microbes.
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