Long for This World
The Strange Science of Immortality
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3.8 • 14 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“[A] searching and surprisingly witty look at the scientific odds against tomorrow.”
—Timothy Ferris
Jonathan Weiner—winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and one of the most distinguished popular science writers in America—examines “the strange science of immortality” in Long for This World. A fast-paced, sure-to-astonish scientific adventure from “one of our finest science journalists” (Jonah Lehrer), Weiner’s Long for This World addresses the ageless question, “Is there a secret to eternal youth?” And has it, at long last, been found?
The Science of Aging: Journey from ancient myths to the cutting-edge labs of modern gerontology, where scientists are unlocking the secrets of why our bodies decline.Cellular Biology Explored: An accessible look at the microscopic machinery that dictates our fate, from the energy-producing mitochondria to the "Garbage Catastrophe" that clutters our cells over time.Genetics of Aging: Discover the evolutionary reasons for our limited life span and meet the controversial figures who believe we can engineer our way to a longer future.Narrative Nonfiction: From a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, this is a masterfully told story of science, history, and humanity's oldest question, blending deep research with vivid, character-driven reporting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The promise of eternal youth is both tantalizingly close and far-fetched in this fascinating primer on longevity research. Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Weiner (The Beak of the Finch) focuses on amateur gerontologist and oddball visionary Aubrey de Grey, a charismatic motormouth who has won a respectful scientific hearing for his argument that we will soon achieve life spans of thousands of years. (His immortality program starts with the removal of a gunky cellular buildup called lipofuscin.) Weiner takes readers on an engrossing tour of cutting-edge research, while citing established life-cycle experts like Shakespeare and Yeats, and he has a knack for translating science into evocative metaphor. He tempers the "prolongevist" optimism with some daunting reality: evolution never engineered humans to last forever, the body s myriad modes of decay may make that goal impossible, and reaching it, he speculates, might render us morbidly averse to risk or even to having children. Weiner s erudite, elegant exposition of the underlying science is stimulating yet sobering.
