Harish Vaidyanathan

“For the only time homeostasis fails is when we are no longer alive.”
― Matt Fitzgerald, Brain Training For Runners: A Revolutionary New Training System to Improve Endurance, Speed, Health, and Results

“Infectious diseases cause a rise in oxidative stress, which is largely responsible for coordinating our genetic response to the infection. As we age, mitochondrial respiration also causes a rise in oxidative stress, which activates essentially the same genes through a common mechanism that involves transcription factors like NFΚB. Unlike infections, however, ageing is not easily reversed: mitochondrial damage accumulates continuously. The stress response and inflammation therefore persist, and this creates a harsh environment for the expression of ‘normal’ genes. The expression of normal genes in an oxidized environment is the basis of their negative pleiotropic effects in old age”
― Nick Lane, Oxygen: The molecule that made the world

“By 1612, when John Rolfe shipped the first crop of Virginia-grown tobacco to England, London already boasted more than 7,000 “tobacco houses.” These cafés offered nicotine junkies a place to sit and converse while drinking (as smoking was originally labeled) tobacco.”
― Timothy C. Winegard, The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

“In life, we have to fulfil both—the expectations we have been born into and those we have made for ourselves.”
― Aditya Iyengar, The Thirteenth Day