**All proceeds from book sales will be donated to the Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis**
Tap into an ancient cellular survival program to optimize health and longevity. Understanding Life will help curious people understand how life might have originated, how metabolism evolved, and what the implications are for health, aging, and disease.
Every cell in your body is a descendant of free-living organisms that developed on our planet billions of years ago. Even with the passage of that much time, your cells harbor powerful survival programs inherited from the first primitive unicellular creatures. Learn what this program is, how it evolved, and how you can use it to be healthier and live longer.
We now know that our cells tend to overreact to mild stresses, and that activating these response programs increases our ability to handle whatever the universe throws at us. Humans were made to move, change, and adapt. We are the species that walked out of Africa and spread to every corner of the globe. Our ancestors survived blazing deserts and long periods of hunger on great journeys full of uncertainty. Over the millennia, our cells, tissues, and bodies have learned to interpret these discomforts as purpose. To nature, a lack of challenges is a powerful signal that we are no longer needed.
The key takeaway is this: make yourself uncomfortable. Hike in the snow. Run in the rain. Laugh at the comedy of life and cry during times of sorrow. Climb a mountain, bathe in a hot spring, shiver in an icy river. Explore your world to its fullest and embrace change and uncertainty. We are the kin of mighty explorers who sacrificed the comforts of hearth and home for the thrill of discovery. We settle into our rocking chairs at our peril. You were meant for greater things.
Brown, Don: - After earning an undergraduate degree in physics, Don Brown enrolled in a combined degree program at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Under that program, he was awarded a master's degree in computer science in 1983 and an MD in 1985. Three decades later, he went back to school and earned a master's degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins in 2017.Don is one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs in the Midwest. While finishing medical school, he started his first company, which was acquired by Electronic Data Systems in 1986. He then founded Software Artistry, which became the first software company ever to go public in the state of Indiana, and which was later acquired by IBM for $200 million. Don then founded Interactive Intelligence, which went public in 1999 and was acquired by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories in 2016 for $1.4 billion.Shortly after the Genesys acquisition, Don founded LifeOmic to bridge his passion for the life sciences with his experience in cloud technologies and artificial intelligence. LifeOmic built a precision health software platform to help researchers and clinicians leverage the power of big data to identify the mutations driving cancer and provide personalized treatment. LifeOmic has also developed two award-winning mobile wellness applications used by millions of people around the world along with a next-generation corporate wellness solution.Don is an active technology investor and philanthropist. In 2016, he donated $30 million for the establishment of the Brown Immunotherapy Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Don is an avid outdoorsman who loves hiking, rock climbing, and skiing with his eight children in and around Park City, Utah. He was named Sagamore of the Wabash by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels in 2012.
