I still remember the voice message from my family doctor, matter-of-factly stating that my blood sugar was extremely high (42 millimoles per litre (mmol/L), which is 756.72 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), to be exact) and that I should go to the hospital immediately. A normal blood sugar, I was soon to learn, is within the ideal boundaries of 4 and 8 mmol/L or (75–150 mg/dL)… (ish).
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams’s science-fiction novel from 1979, a supercomputer called Deep Thought answers the “great question” of “Life, the Universe and Everything.”1