Q4DailyFive-2025 #5

12/20/25 #December
Aim: 18mins/1000words
9:33AM-9:54AM: #21mins

1000words

[[On the Origin of Species]]
[[The Botany of Desire]]
[[Eat to Beat Disease]]
[[Charles Darwin]]
[[Michael Pollan]]
[[Dr. William Li]]

Today’s going to be an interesting discussion about Biology. I would like to discuss three books that I recently finished, this quarter, Q4 2025. As my daily sprint, the last 2 weeks of Q4, is underway, I’m looking back upon books that I’ve really read, but at the end of the day, I’m in the middle ground about a lot of these books, either because they are tough to get through, or they’re kind of complicated. Though there is one book that I will mention that is actually super good, and I genuinely appreciated it a lot. The three books that I will mention are [[On the Origin of Species]], [[The Botany of Desire]], and [[Eat to Beat Disease]].

Let’s first start with [[On the Origin of Species]], by Charles Darwin. This is one of those foundational books in contemporary biology, where Charles Darwin helped adapt the advancement of term [[Survival of the Fittest]] (it was originally coined by Herbert Spencer). This book took a long time for me finish, but I have always have been intrigued, because of its cult status. I may have first started noticing who Charles Darwin was, probably in 9th grade, in Biology class. He’s one of those people, that changed how we look at modern science. His foundational knowledge is what we look to, to get our idea of what evolution is. And for me, it was an interesting book, and I appreciated the perspective. For me, I just wanted to know how he viewed life, in the book, and pretty much his journey. 

The second book I will mention is [[The Botany of Desire]] by [[Michael Pollan]]. Michael Pollan is one of those authors that I am becoming super captivated by nowadays. I’ve also read some of his others books, including [[Caffeine]], [[The Omnivore’s Dilemma]], [[This is Your Mind on Plants]], and now I will be sharing the gist of what I understand from [[The Botany of Desire]]. My first impression of Michael Pollan is his captivating impression of big subjects, that has existed in history, to how it exists today. For example, in one of his books he mentioned the evolution of corn, and I thought that was really neat, because the way he mentioned it, it really resonated with me, and I now have a more vivid understanding of how so many things have corn, and even cows, and just by means of the general process of how corn has gone and has proliferated in modern life.

Furthermore, I also watched some of Michael Pollan’s interviews on YouTube, and I just genuinely love how intelligent he is as an individual about all these topics. The Caffeine book I read, this was one of his smaller books, was also super intriguing. And at the end of the day, I guess caffeine is probably the biggest drug, as it is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance, out there right now, which is pretty incredible to think about. Back to [[The Botany of Desire]], it’s just a book about desire and a particular plant. He has four chapters, and the four plants he mainly mentions are [[The Apple]], [[The Tulip]], [[Marijuana]], and [[The Potato]], though I never really thought of apple and potato as plants, but they are biologically. As I am referencing from my notes, I still think it is pretty incredible how much research he is able to do. And these ‘plants’, all contain a desire, ‘sweetness’, ‘beauty’, ’intoxication’, and ‘control’, respectively. So it’s really interesting to get Michael Pollan’s perspective on all this, as he is very knowledgeable and he is able to tell a good story, in his writing about these topics. 

Overall, these are some foundational biology books that I’ve read this quarter. The one that I like the most is [[Eat to Beat Disease]], by [[Dr. William Li]]. I am genuinely a big fan of Dr. Li. I genuinely think he is such an amazing scientist, and he knows a lot of about longevity science. He is a vascular biologist, that studies angiogenesis, which is a really interesting topic. The way our blood vessels form, it’s a very foundational knowledge that I feel like everyone should know, because it has a lot of information, in regards to helping the body really thrive. Because if we know how to create new blood vessels, and we actually have so many in the body, we can actually make our body thrive more (Note: better to learn about how to grow blood vessels appropriately, as it can help with healing and disease, not just increasing the number of blood vessels, but keeping it appropriately tamed). I myself try to do strengthen my body’s capacity for blood vessel interaction, by exercise everyday, as I’m struggled myself health-wise, my whole life.

As a result, I believe and see Dr. Li to be such a genuinely amazing author. I first started listening to Dr. Li, probably earlier this year, when I saw him being interviewed by [[Lewis Howes]], and I genuinely thought it was amazing how knowledgeable he was about the human body, and about health and nutritional science. And reading this book, it just confirms what I already know about him, but now with even more admiration. Some very wonderful knowledgeable people exist around the world, who are always trying to learn more, and trying to help us become more aware of what the possibilities are. One of the main things that I got from his book is, don’t try to just limit food, to lose weight, but rather include food that will fight off disease, and that enhances the body microbiome, and our ability to fight. Increasing our immune system (being able to help the immune system better regulate) resilience is important, because a lot of food really does help our body, proven by science. And if we get out of the mindset that we have to limit ourselves (energy balance is important) to lose weight, it really is difficult.

The main thing that we should do is to eat the food that really will help us thrive. And that includes fiber, and just vegetables, nuts, and whole boat-load of other things. Dr. Li’s explanation is definitely a lot better, and he has so many cool examples. And I definitely love his enthusiasm, which definitely helps, and this definitely is shown a lot more, when you listen to the voice in the audiobook. Overall, I always learn a lot, during these last two weeks. As a result, the end of the quarter, the last 2 weeks has become a favorite pastime of mine, a time I really appreciate as I reflect on what I have read.