PRESENCE BLUEPRINT

The Journal

One essay on the first of each month. Each takes one hallmark of aging and reads it against the canon.

  1. No. 10 · October · Cellular senescenceBecause I Could Not Stop for DeathSenescent cells stop dividing but refuse to die. The science of cellular senescence, read through Dickinson, Tennyson and Shakespeare.Oct 1, 2026
  2. No. 11 · November · Disabled macroautophagyDestroyer and PreserverAutophagy, the cell's recycling system, fades with age. Shelley, Keats and Ecclesiastes on the art of letting go, and what the science really shows.Forthcoming · November 2026
  3. No. 12 · December · Telomere attritionShadows of Things That May BeThe Fates spin, measure and cut. Telomeres do too. What shortens the thread, what slows it, and why longer isn't always better.Forthcoming · December 2026
  4. No. 13 · January · Genomic instabilityInto Something Rich and StrangeGenomic instability, the first hallmark of aging, read through Ovid, Chaucer's scribe and The Tempest, with evidence-graded ways to protect your DNA.Forthcoming · January 2027
  5. No. 14 · February · Deregulated nutrient-sensingSeven Fat Years, Seven LeanJoseph's granaries, Kafka's hunger artist and Milton's fruit: what the ageing body's nutrient sensors, mTOR and insulin, teach about feast and fast.Forthcoming · February 2027
  6. No. 15 · March · Epigenetic alterationsThe Child Is Father of the ManWhat epigenetic clocks can and cannot tell you, read through Wordsworth, Hawthorne and De Quincey's palimpsest. The science of marks written on the body.Forthcoming · March 2027
  7. No. 16 · April · Stem cell exhaustionLilacs out of the Dead LandStem cell exhaustion, the ageing of renewal itself, read through Eliot's April, Persephone and the Phoenix, with the evidence on what helps and what harms.Forthcoming · April 2027
  8. No. 17 · May · Loss of proteostasisCold Pastoral: On Keeping Our ShapeWhy ageing cells lose their shape, what heat, sleep and movement can and cannot do about it, and what Keats's urn tells us about form.Forthcoming · May 2027
  9. No. 18 · June · Mitochondrial dysfunctionHail, Holy LightMitochondria are the fire we stole. Milton, Blake and the solstice meet the science of how exercise and light shape aging cells.Forthcoming · June 2027
  10. No. 19 · July · Altered intercellular communicationNot One Member, but ManyHow ageing garbles the body's cell-to-cell signals, what loneliness has to do with it, and what Shakespeare, Donne and Babel saw first.Forthcoming · July 2027
  11. No. 20 · August · Chronic inflammationFire and Fever in His TrainInflammaging, the slow fire of age, read through Homer, Seneca, Dante and Blake, and what the evidence says actually lets it burn out.Forthcoming · August 2027
  12. No. 21 · September · DysbiosisSuch Sweet Things Out of Such CorruptionsThe gut's microbial garden thins with age. Whitman, Virgil and Voltaire meet the science of fibre, fermentation and a well-tended microbiome.Forthcoming · September 2027