Harish Vaidyanathan

“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

“Columbus was not even the first foreigner to discover the Americas. Columbus was, however, the first to open the doors permanently to the prevailing presence of Europeans, African slaves, and their diseases in their new world.”
― Timothy C. Winegard, The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator