
Why the immune system is so damn complicated - luu
http://yarchive.net/blog/medicine/immune_system_complexity.html
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csense
The immune system's basically the product of an arms race between humans and
microbes. It's complicated because different mechanisms are independent:
Adding a new mechanism allows it to kill a few more microbes without
subverting the effectiveness of existing mechanisms.

Humans have an intrinsic advantage in that they're big creatures that can use
strategies not available to single-celled organisms. E.g. having different
specialist cell types that signal each other, or altering the homeostasis set
point to change the ambient environment (fever).

