Blog
- One healthy day (September 15, 2026): The basic unit of a long life is not a year. It is a day.
- Your liver keeps its own time (September 14, 2026): For a long time we assumed the master clock in the brain ran every other clock in the body. Light reaches the eye, the brain sets the time, and the organs follow.
- Morning light is a nutrient (September 13, 2026): We talk about vitamins and protein. We rarely talk about light, yet the body needs a daily dose of it.
- The last bite matters (September 12, 2026): Ask people when they start eating and most can tell you. Ask when they stop, and the answer gets fuzzy.
- Why jet lag feels like the flu (September 11, 2026): When you fly across several time zones, the clock in your brain starts to shift with the new daylight. The clocks in your gut, liver and muscles shift on their own schedules.
- Night shifts are not only a night problem (September 10, 2026): Nurses, firefighters, pilots, factory workers. Millions of people work while the rest of us sleep, and all of us depend on them.
- Twelve hours is a good first step (September 9, 2026): People often ask me for the perfect eating window. I start with a simpler answer: try to fit your food and drinks, other than water, into twelve hours.
- Even your houseplants keep time (September 8, 2026): In 1729, the French astronomer Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan put a mimosa plant in a dark cupboard. Its leaves kept opening and closing on a daily schedule, with no sun to guide them.
- Dim the evening (September 7, 2026): The same light-sensing cells that wake your brain in the morning keep listening at night. Bright light in the evening tells them it is still day.
- What I learned growing up in Odisha (September 6, 2026): I grew up in rural and semi-urban Odisha, in eastern India, where daily life followed the sun and the seasons.
- Sleep is not wasted time (September 5, 2026): While you sleep, your body repairs tissue, your brain sorts and stores what you learned during the day, and your hormones reset for the morning.
- Exercise needs fuel, and rest (September 4, 2026): Exercise is one of the best things we can do for body and mind. But more is not always better.
- Your gut microbes have a schedule too (September 3, 2026): Trillions of microbes live in your gut. Their numbers and activity rise and fall over the day.
- The clock in every cell (September 2, 2026): Your body does not have one clock. It has trillions of them.
- Medicine may work better at the right hour (September 1, 2026): Many of the genes and proteins that common drugs act on are busy at some hours and quiet at others.
- Weekends and social jet lag (August 31, 2026): Many of us wake early on weekdays and sleep in on weekends, sometimes by two or three hours.
- A walk after dinner (August 30, 2026): If you eat late, one of the kindest things you can do for your body is to move a little afterwards.
- Hospitals that never go dark (August 29, 2026): Patients in intensive care often spend days under constant light and noise. Day and night blur together.
- Diabetes and the body clock (August 28, 2026): Your body handles sugar differently at different times of day. For many people, the same meal raises blood glucose more in the evening than in the morning.
- Science is a team sport (August 27, 2026): My name appears on many papers. Behind each one are students, postdocs, technicians, clinicians and volunteers.
- Start the day, then eat (August 26, 2026): Some people reach for food the moment they wake up. Others skip breakfast and eat late into the night.
- Naps, done well (August 25, 2026): A short nap can restore alertness. A long one late in the day can make it harder to fall asleep at night.
- Time is the missing ingredient (August 24, 2026): Most health advice is about what and how much. What to eat, how much to exercise, how many hours to sleep.
- Why I am writing here (August 23, 2026): For most of my career I have shared science in journals and lecture halls. Those places matter, but they reach few people.