Seven Deadly Things, 149–61, 171, 194; cancer problem and, 197–207; cross-links, 150–52, 157; damage to mitochondrial DNA, 150, 152–57, 199; de Grey’s stump speech about, 161–69, 172; junk in nerve cells of brain, 150, 157–59, 198; list of, 150; need to solve all seven problems at once, 155–56, 159–61; proposals in SENS program for, 198–99
Shakespeare, William, 9, 259, 260; As You Like It, 52–53, 54, 94, 97–98
Shi Yen-nien, 279
Siddhrtha Gautama, 227
Sinclair, David, 189
Sinclair Research, 46–47, 140
Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 132
single-celled animals, 57, 241; death believed to be impossible for, 89, 91; reproduction of, 59–60; Rudzinka’s research on, 59–68. See also hydras; Tokophrya
Sir2 (Silent Information Regulator 2), 188–89
Sirtris, 189
sirtuins, 189, 190, 192
skeletons, tearing apart and rebuilding of, 83, 88
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (Condorcet), 37
skin, 73, 124, 158; telomerase elimination and, 203, 204, 206; wrinkles in, 25–26, 131–32, 133, 150–52, 157, 199
skin-out vs. skin-in biologists, 175–76, 180, 181–82, 184, 185, 188, 265
Smith, John Maynard, 181–82
soil microbes, 133–39; in graveyards, 134–36, 138–39, 141; toxins devoured by, 133–34, 137–38
Song, Shiwei, 128
Sophocles, 253
Sourcery (Pratchett), 168
Soviet Union, life expectancy in, 233
Spain, graying of, 234
Sparrow, Janet, 121, 123, 172–74
species, death believed to be of benefit to, 89–91, 92–93
specificity problem in medicine, 152
sperm. See germ cells
sponges, 242
squirrels, survival in wild of, 94
Stalin, Joseph, 261
Steinach, Eugen, 40–41, 42
stem cells, 73; in hydra’s fountain, 56–57; telomerase elmination and (WILT procedure), 202–3, 204
Stone Age, 10; fossil dental records of, 107–9
Strategies for the Engineering of Negligible Senescense (SENS), 18–19, 160, 161, 197, 198–99
streptococcus, 103, 142
strokes, 103, 104, 198, 204
struggle for existence, 93–97, 100, 115
suicide, euthanasia and, 257–58, 259
Sulzer, Dave, 277
sun, Galileo’s discovery of spots in, 225–26, 227
sustainability issues, 262–63
tau, 159, 160, 173–74
teeth, of Paleolithic ancestors, 107–9
telomerase, 201–2; elimination of, from cancer cells (WILT procedure), 202–7
telomeres, 201, 203, 205
Terman, Alexei, 144, 243
testicles, rejuvenation therapies and, 39–40
theoretical biology, 139, 169–70
thyroid problems, 142
time, human development and sense of, 228–29; immortality and, 251–54
“Time to Talk SENS” (de Grey), 18–19
Tithonus, 27
TNT, 137
Tokophrya, 59–68; aging and death of, 62–67, 79–80; calorie restriction and, 66–67; reproduction of, 59–60, 68; Rudzinka’s search for stock of, 61
TOR (Target of Rapamycin), 190–92
Törnroth-Horsefield, Susanna, 74–75
tuberculosis, 104
tumors, 150, 198; telomerase elimination and (WILT procedure), 202–7. See also cancer
Turner, Aaron, 47, 140
ubiquitin, 194–95
United States, life expectancy in, 11, 233
“Unsolved Problem of Biology, An” (Medawar), 92, 114
Upanishads, 239, 270, 280
Updike, John, 225, 269
“Upon the Eternal Duration of Life” (Weissmann), 89
Upper Paleolithic, survival of older adults in, 108–9
Vajasravasa, 239
Valerius Terminus (Bacon), 31
Valéry, Paul, 234
valproate, 195
Varieties of Religious Experience, The (James), 156
vasectomies, 40–41
Vijg, Jan, 19, 207, 277–79
vision, 125; age-related changes in, 99, 121–24, 126, 142, 172–74
Voltaire, 240
Voronoff, Serge, 40, 42
Wang Ch’i, 279
Watson, James, 4, 48, 77, 117, 140, 176, 180, 231
Way Things Are, The (Lucretius), 240
Weissmann, August, 89–93, 102, 112, 113; Medawar’s critique of, 92–93, 101
White, E. B., 111
Whitman, Walt, 224
Wieschaus, Eric, 49
Williams, Bernard, 249
wine, 275
Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, 42
Woolf, Virginia, 262
World’s Week, 42
World War Two, 233; RAF in, 4, 6, 181, 230–31
worms: Methuselah mutants, 178–80, 181, 184; parasitic, 187
wrinkles, 25–26, 131–32, 133, 150–52, 157, 199
Writing Life, The (Dillard), 224
Wu, Emperor of China, 260–61
Wyndham, Diana, 40
XKCD, 236
Yama, 239
yeast, 60, 188
Yeats, William Butler, 40–41, 201, 215
yogurt, 39
youth, prolonging of, 185
Zeus, 27
Acknowledgments
Aubrey de Grey was cheerful and extremely generous with his time and help, even though I told him from the outset that I was not writing as an acolyte. I’m very grateful.
Nick Lemann, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, gave me a crucial year’s writing leave to finish the book. A fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation helped make that year possible.
Eric Kandel, Arnie Levine, Paul Nurse, Martin Raff, Frank Rothman, and Harold Varmus gave me early advice and encouragement.
John Bonner, Stuart Firestein, Philip Kitcher, Nick Lemann, and Michael Shapiro read early drafts. Judy Campisi, Joan Finkelstein, Steve Helfand, Martin Raff, and Jan Vijg read late drafts. Many thanks to all of them for valuable suggestions and corrections.
Dozens of scientists and science watchers went out of their way to help, although not all of their names appear in the book. Special thanks to Martin Ackermann, Richard Cohen, Ralph Greenspan, Marguerite Holloway, and Neil Patterson.
Fay Schopen helped me with research, particularly in Cambridge. I still owe her a pint.
At Ecco, Dan Halpern saw the book’s possibilities and waited for it with the patience of Job. When Matt Weiland joined Ecco a little over a year ago, he took on the day-by-day job of working with book and author. Matt shepherded these chapters out of many blind valleys. Without him, the book would not have found the path it has.
My agent, Kathy Robbins, was wonderful, as always. I feel lucky to work with her, and with the excellent staff of the Robbins Office.
My sons, Aaron and Benjamin, took an interest in this project from the first day, when Aubrey de Grey came to visit us. I owe them thanks for their good words and advice.
As always, my wife, Deborah Heiligman, read many drafts, taking time away from her own writing projects. She saw me through this book at some cost to her own longevity. In her, the meaning of the span.
About the Author
JONATHAN WEINER is one of the most distinguished popular-science writers in the country: his books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, Time, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and many other newspapers and magazines, and he is a former editor at The Sciences. His books include The Beak of the Finch; Time, Love, Memory; and His Brother’s Keeper. He lives in New York, whe
re he teaches science writing at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
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His Brother’s Keeper
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The Next One Hundred Years
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Copyright
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