Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality

“[A] searching and surprisingly witty look at the scientific odds against tomorrow.”

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: Explore the cellular-level reasons we grow old, from mitochondrial decay and the “Garbage Catastrophe” to the seven deadly roadblocks to a longer life.
• A Quest for Immortality: Meet the brilliant and eccentric figures at the forefront of gerontology, including the controversial Aubrey de Grey, in the same Cambridge pub where Watson and Crick announced the “secret of life.”
• The Evolution of Aging: Uncover the surprising reason natural selection doesn’t care about us after a certain age—the “disposable soma” theory that explains why our bodies aren’t built to last.
• History and Bioethics of Longevity: Journey from the epic of Gilgamesh to modern labs and confront the profound ethical questions that arise if science finally conquers death.

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, where he teaches science writing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.