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| | Description | From the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner comes a fast-paced and astonishing scientific adventure story: has the long-sought secret of eternal youth at last been found?
In recent years, the dream of eternal youth has started to look like more than just a dream. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy increased by more than thirty years—almost as much time as humans have gained in the whole span of human existence. Today a motley array of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs believe that another, bigger leap is at hand—that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. Is there genius or folly in the dreams of these charismatic but eccentric thinkers? In Long for This World, Jonathan Weiner, a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter with a gift for making cutting-edge science understandable, takes the reader on a whirlwind intellectual quest to find out. From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's tomb in Ravenna, Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the mind-blowing science behind the latest research. He traces the centuries-old, fascinating history of the quest for longevity in art, science, and literature, from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare, Doctor Faustus to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." And he tells the dramatic story of how aging could be conquered once and for all, focusing on the ideas of those who believe aging is a curable disease. Chief among them is the extraordinary Aubrey de Grey, a garrulous Englishman who bears more than a passing resemblance to Methuselah (at 969 years, the oldest man in the Bible) and who is perhaps immortality's most radical and engaging true believer. A rollicking scientific adventure story in the grand manner of Oliver Sacks, Long for This World is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could...would we want to? | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Jonathan Weiner | | Hardcover: | 320 pages | | Publisher: | Ecco | | Publication Date: | June 22, 2010 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0060765364 | | Product Length: | 9.5 inches | | Product Width: | 6.5 inches | | Product Height: | 1.3 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.04 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.0 inches | | Package Width: | 6.3 inches | | Package Height: | 1.3 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 63 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 63 customer reviews )
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174 of 190 found the following review helpful:
 One-Trick Pony May 30, 2010
By Bruce Loveitt
I was very disappointed in this book, and here's why: First the pros...Weiner gives a lot of pagetime to Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey. Great name, eh? He is a brilliant and colorful man who is an enthusiastic proponent of the idea that science can, and soon will, enable us to live virtually forever. Aubrey's optimism is refreshing. Whether it is realistic or not I am not qualified to say, as I don't have a background in biology. And with his elongated frame, gaunt countenance, slovenly dress, biblical beard and nonstop beer-swilling he is fun to read about. Another positive is the author's explanation of the basic problem: our cells are constantly mutating and malfunctioning, and as we get older the "mistakes" add up as the body loses the ability to make corrections. So far, so good...but here are the negatives: Perversely, the almost exclusive concentration on Aubrey de Grey makes this more of a colorful "New Yorker" type piece, or mini-biography, than a rigorous exploration of all the work going on in this field. There are snippets of what other people who are doing work in this area think, but these ideas and opinions are not examined or explained in any detail. The book basically comes down to this: Aubrey de Grey thinks that we will come up with a way to clean up the mistakes that occur in our genetic codes, and other people think it's too complicated or it's too soon to tell. But, again, we are not given enough of a rounded picture to come to our own conclusions. There is also a sort of half-hearted attempt to wax philosophical about whether it would be good to be immortal, but this is done in a rather cursory manner. For example, Mr. Weiner makes an assumption that if we lived almost indefinitely, we wouldn't want to have children...therefore, tremendously long lifespans wouldn't cause an overpopulation problem. He doesn't address the fact that we have evolved over millions of years a biological imperative to have children. Why would that suddenly disappear? Other seemingly important, related, issues such as diet (antioxidants), and why some nationalities live longer and have fewer instances of heart disease and cancer are likewise not examined at all or are mentioned in an offhand manner. Aubrey de Grey is a fascinating man and he does warrant a biography. But this book is supposed to be a rigorous examination of the science of immortality and, as such, it should thoroughly cover all the bases. It does not do so, and that's why I can't recommend it.
61 of 70 found the following review helpful:
 On the Road to Long Life Jun 08, 2010
By George Webster, Ph.D.,
As a biochemist, I once did research on aging. I wanted to know why the several trillion cells in our body deteriorate in much the same way that our automobiles deteriorate with age. The answer was that the complex systems for repair and replacement of cell machinery slowly, and finally rapidly, stop repairing and replacing parts. As a result, the cells die, and so does the living creature, whether human or worm. I suspected that the cause of this might be damage to the many genes controlling the repair and replacement process. Now, it seems likely that something of this sort is the case, and it raises the question of how long we can live if we can get the repair and replacement process started again.
In this excellent and very readable book, Weiner presents a status report of research progress on extending life, and he faces the question of living forever. In his search for answers, he has the aid of Aubrey de Grey of Cambridge University, a scientist who bubbles with ideas. I was fortunate at one time to be in an online discussion group on aging that included Aubrey de Grey. The stimulation he brought was amazing. Now, you can read some of his thinking, as related by Weiner, along with the setting in which it occurred.
Aubrey de Grey suggests that unlimited life is certainly on the way. His arguments are good, and I note that a growing number of researchers have concluded that aging cells wear out much like the parts of our automobiles. We can combat some of this wear by replacing vital organs, but the real feat is to get those defective control genes replaced or working again. Researchers are finding and working on some of the genes. As a result, they have extended, and even doubled, the life spans of creatures in the laboratory. Thus, much longer life is possible. Unlimited life does not violate any physical law, so it is also possible. We simply have to figure out how to do it. I learned long ago of the danger of saying that something is impossible. This was the case with space travel, and this is the case with immortality. Weiner does a masterful job of explaining where we stand on extending life, and the problems we face.
28 of 31 found the following review helpful:
Our eternal struggle May 31, 2010
By Personne
Humanity's fear of death has yielded many odd things. It has given us expensive cosmetics and odd potions (current fascination with "ionized water" is just the latest in this endless thread). It has given us visions of an afterlife, well-stocked with trout and virgins. But it has also given us the Pyramids and Keats, vaccines and Brahms, sanitation and farming. As Jonathan Weiner's readable book demonstrates, we've been just a few years from a cure--for millennia.
As we've come to learn more about evolution and the processes of life, we have begun to gain some insight into the mechanisms of aging. It is deeply built into the way our biology works. Four billion years of evolution mean that there's a lot to untangle. Weiner takes us into the labs of many biologists and experimentalists, each working on one small key to the puzzle. He examines the bitter debate between the "skin-ins", those who study biology at the molecular level, and the "skin-outs", who study the emergent properties of complete ecosystems. All of this is written in an engaging style that will inform any reader with a modicum of scientific curiosity. Weiner knows his literature as well, often referring to relevant passages in ancient Chinese and Indian poetry or classical Western thought. I really AM going to have to get to Dante some day.
Most scientists are modest in characterizing their own knowledge and the impact it will have on human lifespans. A few more years might be a reasonable expectation. But there are those (as there always have been) who assume that we can achieve virtual immortality with just a few small steps. In Weiner's book, the stand-in for this point of view is a man named Aubrey de Grey.
De Grey is a genuine character, of a type that's somewhat familiar to me. An English software engineer, now in middle age, with an enormous beard and an endless thirst for beer, de Grey directs a society dedicated to immortality. He's an academic type with a lot of brains and very little true accomplishment. He's an autodidact in the field of biology, but without the patience or training to actually test his own ideas. This doesn't not stop him from spewing opinions, occasionally (remember the parable of the blind squirrel finding the nut) unearthing something of interest. Since he is an engineer, he displays the engineer's attitude: just the right line of code or the right-sized bolt and we're done. He's an interesting, if eventually tiresome, antagonist.
Jonathan Weiner has given us a book that's equal part science and philosophy. Our world would be vastly different without the stimulus of personal demise (for a companion reader I'd recommend Death & Sex by Tyler Volk). Perhaps the strongest example of this was given--unwittingly--by Aubrey de Grey. He speculated that once aging was eliminated, then death would come only by accidental cause. We'd be afraid to get in a car or to climb a mountain. With immortality, our fear of death would only increase. What kind of a life is that?
11 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Gerontology or the Musings of an Amateur Philosopher Jul 26, 2010
By Thomas Wikman
"Texas Swede"
This book about "the strange science of immortality" feature a mix, or perhaps a mess, of various information on gerontology (science of aging), a somewhat fawning semi biography of a leading gerontologist (Aubrey de Grey), and musings and opinions on mortality and immortality. I felt that the book was not well organized and to some degree a waste of my time.
While reading this book I sometimes got the feeling that there is not that much interesting to say in the field of gerontology and that the author therefore worked in loads of filler material. I should say I do not believe that is the case. Even though the book contains some interesting information, the problem is that it is not well organized. In addition the sometimes idiotic and somewhat uninteresting musings, opinions, amateur philosophy, speculation, as well as the life stories of scientists (mostly Aubrey de Grey) often overshadowed the Science.
The author explains how single cell organisms in one sense live for ever and that some primitive multi-cell organisms, for example the Hydra, in theory can go on living for ever. There are a lot of possible reasons as to why our more complex bodies' age. In the wild animals (and presumably humans) don't live that long, due natural circumstances (accidents, disease, starvation, etc). For example, only 6% of the squirrels live beyond four years in the wild even though they can live to the age of 20 in the Zoo. Since Mother Nature would kill off most of us before we reach old age why would our bodies spend energy on keeping our cells in good repair for ever? Basically, there was no evolutionary pressure towards extending life.
The book gives the reader some explanation of the internal working of cells and how deterioration happens and is partially prevented by cell. In one chapter the author sets out to describe Aubrey de Grey's the Seven Deadly Things that causes our bodies' to age and die (intercellar aggregates, extra cellular aggregates, mitochondrial mutations, extracellular crosslinks, cell loss, cell senescence, and cancer). Unfortunately he only clearly identifies three of them in that chapter, and he later mentions that cancer is one of them. He essentially touches upon all of them at one point or another but not as one of the "deadly things". This is in my opinion an example of the disorganization of the book.
As mentioned another thing that annoyed me was the fawning semi-biography of Aubrey de Grey. Aubrey de Grey is an optimist and optimists often get all the attention of the media. However, in my experience unjustified optimism can ruin the reputation of a scientific field. This has happened many times already. The author questions Aubrey de Grey's optimism at the end of the book but a better approach would have been to include the opinions of many scientists without telling us their life stories or too much about their personalities.
I should say that I might still have considered this a decent book because it contains some interesting information, and except for the disorganization it is overall well written. However, what made this book not worth reading for me were the random musings on death and immortality by various people that the author included in the book. He presents quotes and opinions by ancient philosophers, religious leaders, scientists, movie producers, and discusses topics like the desirability of immortality at length. I found this stuff to be just tedious.
With some re-organization and the removal of most of the author's musings on immortality and the removal of at least some of the fawning semi-biography of Aubrey de Grey this could have been a good book. As it is written I cannot recommend it.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Less beer, please Jun 16, 2010
By K. Bunker
"KBunker"
This book is an example of what might be called "personality-driven science writing." Jonathan Weiner seems to be terrified that, if he were to simply present readers with the science--the theories, the experiments, the facts, the figures--his readers would be passing out in droves from boredom. So instead he tries to keep things lively by talking about the people behind the science. And I don't just mean a bit of biographic background and a funny anecdote or two. I mean that roughly fifty percent of this book's content is stuff about the scientists, rather than the science: Their history, their personalities, their clothing, their jewelry, their drinking habits, what sound their beer glass makes when they set it down after taking a swig ("tap", in case you were wondering), how they slur their speech when they've had too much beer, their facial hair, etc., etc. (Though granted, the beard of gerontology researcher Aubrey de Gray is of such epic proportions that it would probably warrant some mention in any book on the subject of aging research.)
The corollary to this is the frequency with which the word "I" appears in the book. Weiner tells you in great detail about his personal interactions with this and that researcher, what he thought of them, his reaction to the place where he interviewed them, what he thought when they said this, what he felt when they said that, etc., etc.
Personally, when I read a science book, I want it to have science in it. Just the facts, ma'am. Maybe I'm out of date in that regard. Maybe the best way to sell a science book these days is to make it into a veritable video game of flashing blue eyes, dialog in slurred-speech dialect, tapping beer glasses and what-I-said-to-Aubrey-when-he-said-this-to-me.
Anyway.
When Weiner does get around to talking science, he does a good job of it. He describes the research and the sundry theories relating to the study of aging in neat and clear language. I remember his description of the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging as being particularly well done.
A long section of the book is given over to describing various thoughts around evolution as it relates to aging. The current majority view seems to be that, once a creature has reached maturity and reproduced, it has achieved "success" as far as evolution is concerned, so evolution can't play much of a role in improving longevity past the age of reproduction. As Weiner eloquently puts it, referring to the "blind watchmaker" that is the evolutionary process, "there is a place where the watchmaker cannot reach, a place where the watchmaker's fingers cannot touch. That is the desolate place we call old age." That's some nice writing there. I only wish there was more of that, and less tapping of beer glasses.
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