Your body is a far-from-equilibrium thermodynamic system—a hurricane of organized chemistry that maintains itself by constantly processing energy and exporting entropy. Understanding this changes everything about how you think about health, disease, and aging. These articles explore human biology through the lens of physics.
Modern medicine treats the body like a machine: find the broken part, fix it, done. But living systems don't work that way. Health isn't a state—it's a process. Disease isn't a thing—it's a disruption of flow. Aging isn't inevitable decay—it's accumulated entropy that proper maintenance can slow. These articles explain why.
We explore topics like chronic inflammation (the body's entropy accumulator), the microbiome (your internal ecosystem), sleep (entropy export time), and exercise (controlled stress that builds resilience). We examine why some interventions work and others don't, why individual responses vary so much, and why the healthcare system often makes things worse.
Whether you're dealing with a specific health challenge or simply want to optimize your biology, these articles provide a framework for understanding your body as the complex adaptive system it actually is.
The Bathtub Analogy
Dr. Bob's simple image that explains homeostasis, disease, and why most pharmaceutical approaches fail. Inflow, outflow, balance.
You Make Your Body Weight in ATP Daily
You produce 150-200 pounds of ATP every day. You don't accumulate it—you cycle it. The numbers that prove you're not a thing, you're a process.
The Mind-Blowing Mathematics of You
Your DNA could stretch to the sun and back 400 times. 50 billion tons of DNA on Earth. The numbers that prove life isn't random.
Jeanne Calment: The Oldest Human Ever
She lived to 122, smoked, drank wine, and ate chocolate. What can the world's oldest person teach us about longevity? Insights from Dr. Bob Melamede's framework
Exercise: The Endocannabinoid Booster
The 'runner's high' isn't from endorphins—it's from endocannabinoids. Exercise is one of the best ways to boost your ECS.
The Neutrophil Nuke: Your Immune System's Nuclear Option
Neutrophils kill pathogens by releasing massive amounts of free radicals—a nuclear explosion at the cellular level Insights from Dr. Bob Melamede's framework.
Two Types of Cancer: Active and Dormant
Not all cancers are the same. Understanding the difference between aggressive and dormant cancer changes everything about treatment.
Stem Cells and Cancer: The Continuum
Cancer isn't a foreign invader—it's your own stem cells losing their way on the spectrum between health and disease Insights from Dr. Bob Melamede's framework.
Estrogen, Menopause, and the Fat-Burning Connection
Estrogen turns on fat burning via AMPK. This is why women historically live longer than men—and why menopause changes everything.
Fat, Fibrosis, and Cancer: The Same Phenomenon
When cells make too many free radicals, they have three survival options: make fat, make fibers, or divide. Obesity, fibrosis, and cancer are all the same phenomenon.
The Warburg Effect: Why Cancer Loves Sugar
Cancer cells burn sugar even when oxygen is present. This isn't a defect—it's a survival mechanism. Understanding the Warburg effect reveals why cancer is fundamentally a metabolic disease.
Why Chemotherapy Creates Drug Resistance
Cancer cells exist in different metabolic states. Chemotherapy kills drug-sensitive cells and selects for resistant ones. It's like throwing a pebble in a stream—the stream just flows around it.
The Exercise Paradox: Why Breaking Down Builds You Up
You think you’re getting stronger at the gym. You’re not. You think that hour on the treadm Insights from Dr. Bob Melamede's framework.
Stress is Killing You (Literally)
You think you’re tough. You think you can handle the pressure. The deadlines, the bills, the screaming kids, the endless not
Sleep is Non-Negotiable
You Can't Hack Your Way Around Thermodynamics Let's get one thing straight. You think you can cheat sleep? You think you can grind 2
The Gut-Brain Connection
Let's get one thing straight. That
Your Body Wants to Heal
The Uncomfortable Truth About Your
Why Modern Medicine is Failing (And What You Can Do About It)
_Editor's Note: This article is part of Justin Hartfield's
The Free Radical Theory of Aging
Let’s get one thing straight: you’re going to die. So am I. Every damn one of us. But you’ve been fed a bedtime story about why you age
Why You're Inflamed (And What To Do About It)
The Hook Let's get one thing straight: the concept of