Luckily for us, the design of the human body includes specialized defense mechanisms around vulnerable tissues — tissues where an infection, injury, or malfunction would be devastating to the whole organism (us). For example, the structure of our skeleton adapts over time to mechanical forces by additional mineralization along lines of compression or bending moment stress, thereby preventing serious fractures. Our nervous system has automated the regulation of essential bodily functions such as our heart rate and digestion, so that we don’t have to consciously think about them, while leaving other activities such as muscle movement up to our conscious brain so we can decide where to walk. These are only two of numerous examples of elegant safety strategies that protect our anatomy and ensure proper physiological functioning.