Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human AgingBy the year 2050 one in five of the world's population will be 65 or older, a fact which presages profound medical, biological, philosophical, and political changes in the coming century. In Time of Our Lives, Tom Kirkwood draws on more than twenty years of research to make sense of the evolution of aging, to explain how aging occurs, and to answer fundamental questions like why women live longer than men. He shows that we age because our genes, evolving at a time when life was "nasty, brutish, and short," placed little priority on the long-term maintenance of our bodies. With such knowledge, along with new insights from genome research, we can devise ways to target the root causes of aging and of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. He even considers the possibility that human beings will someday have greatly extended life spans or even be free from senescence altogether. Beautifully written by one of the world's pioneering researchers into the science of aging, Time of Our Lives is a clear, original and, above all, inspiring investigation of a process all of us experience but few of us understand. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 12 | |
| 22 | |
4 Longevity records | 39 |
5 The unnecessary nature of ageing | 52 |
6 Why ageing occurs | 63 |
7 Cells in crisis | 81 |
8 Molecules and mistakes | 100 |
12 Eat less live longer | 174 |
13 Why do women live longer than men? | 184 |
14 The Genie of the Genome | 196 |
15 In search of WonkaVite | 212 |
16 Making more time | 230 |
Epilogue | 243 |
Notes | 257 |
Bibliography | 261 |
9 Organs and orchestras | 118 |
10 The cancer connection | 147 |
11 Menopause and the big bang | 161 |
Index | 269 |
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Common terms and phrases
ageing process allele Alzheimer's disease amino acid animals antioxidant apoptosis become biological blood body bone brain called Calment cancer cause cell division cellular centenarians chemical child chromosomes copies culture damage death gene developed dietary restriction disposable soma theory effects enzyme evidence evolutionary evolved female fraitch free radicals genetic germ cells germ-line grow growth happen Hayflick Limit Hoddle hormone human hydra idea immune system important increase individual kinds live longer look maintenance male mechanisms memory menopause mice Miranda mitochondria mobbit molecular molecules mortality mutations natural selection Navrongo neurones normal occurs old age older oncogenes organs parents population problem proteins repair replicative reproduction result ribosome saw in Chapter scientific semelparous soma somatic cells span species sperm stem cells straws suggested survival syndrome telomerase telomeres things tion tissues tRNA tumour Werner's syndrome women Wonka-Vite young
Popular passages
Page 118 - Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower? O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out Against the wreckful siege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
Page 22 - The dew shall weep thy fall to-night ; For thou must die. Sweet Rose, whose hue, angry and brave, Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou must die.
Page 12 - An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress...
Page 230 - Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in ; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in : Say I 'm weary, say I 'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I 'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me.
Page 100 - TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Page 184 - ... rain Is full of ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply; And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: I cannot say what loves have come and gone; I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more.
Page 147 - Authorizing thy trespass with compare, Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss, Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are; For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense — Thy adverse party is thy advocate— And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence. Such...
Page 104 - It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
Page 45 - The organs of generation were healthy, the penis neither retracted nor extenuated, nor the scrotum filled with any serous infiltration, as happens so commonly among the decrepid ; the testes, too, were sound and large; so that it seemed not improbable that the common report was true, viz. that he did public penance under a conviction for incontinence, after he had passed his hundredth year...