Aarathi was born in London to an Indian mother and Trinidadian father and was educated in the West Indies and in the UK. She is the author of 'A Natural History of Silk' (The Bristol Art Library, 2019); 'In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room': travels through Indian medicine (Profile / Hachette, 2016) and 'Like A Virgin: how science is redesigning the rules of sex' (Oneworld, 2012), and was a contributing author to 'What's Next? : Even Scientists Can’t Predict the Future – Or Can They?' (Profile, 2017), edited by Professor Jim Al-Khalili. She has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Prospect, Wired, The Lancet, Huffington Post blogs, Vogue, Elle, The Telegraph and Scientific American. She is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Global Health, University College London.