The Rules of Contagion

Adam Kucharski is an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. A mathematician by training, his work on global outbreaks has included Ebola, Zika and COVID-19, and he has produced real-time analysis for multiple governments and health agencies. He is a TED senior fellow and winner of the 2016 Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture and the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. The author of The Perfect Bet, his writing has appeared in the Observer, Financial Times, Wired and New Statesman.

An Observer Book of the Year
A Times Science Book of the Year
A New Statesman Book of the Year
A Financial Times Science Book of the Year

'Astonishingly bold' Daily Mail

'It is hard to imagine a more timely book ... much of the modern world will make more sense having read it.' The Times

We live in a world that's more interconnected than ever before. Our lives are shaped by outbreaks - of disease, of misinformation, even of violence - that appear, spread and fade away with bewildering speed. To understand them, we need to learn the hidden laws that govern them. From 'superspreaders' who might spark a pandemic or bring down a financial system to the social dynamics that make loneliness catch on, The Rules of Contagion offers compelling insights into human behaviour and explains how we can get better at predicting what happens next.

Along the way, Adam Kucharski explores how innovations spread through friendship networks, what links computer viruses with folk stories - and why the most useful predictions aren't necessarily the ones that come true.

Now revised and updated with content on Covid-19.

The bestselling - and hugely timely - guide to the science of contagion, revised and updated to address Covid-19