August 17th, 2010 
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- ISBN13: 9780060765361
- Condition: New
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Product 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 a… More >>
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I recommend this book. The weirdly scientific quest for immortality really is strange. The book is both hilariously funny and a real eye opener. Read it. You will wonder how people who were otherwise so intelligent could become so stupid about fundamental biology. I don’t want to tell too much and spoil it for anyone. Just read it. You will enjoy it.
Rating: 5 / 5
An interesting view into the science of extending the human life cycle. Well-written.
I rate this book: 3 stars
Rating: 3 / 5
Jonathan Weiner’s LONG FOR THIS WORLD: THE STRANGE SCIENCE OF IMMORTALITY is a cornucopia of enlightening thought that goes beyond our wildest dreams in terms of living longer. The book lays out the general questions, such as what measures human mortality and can humans live beyond their years? Weiner attempts to prove that hypothesis that appears convincing, especially with his discussion of Englishman Aubrey de Grey, a computer scientist, who has been enthralled with living beyond one’s years and has taken this relentless task after gaining influence from his wife Adelaide who happened to breathe biology into the mix. Of course this is not a new phenomenon because man has been looking for that magical potion of the so-called fountain of youth that does not include the artificial means of cosmetic surgery for thousands of years that has been exemplified with myth, legend, and the questioning of historical truth; literary legends have displayed this from ancient heroic tales of Gilgamesh to the poetic renderings by Chinese poet Li Ho. But when first reading the preliminary passages, general knowledge makes one assume that this is not at all mysterious and impossible because people are already living longer than preceding generations. But taking that aspect aside, Weiner shows there is more to the story.
In order to bring an understanding to that practical observation, Weiner focuses on de Grey’s research that involves the major link of DNA as well as the important factual and historical evidence that have already proven the progression of life expectancy. With he and de Grey’s elaborate explanations, an inkling of this hypothesis comes alive and moves towards the path of truth that crosses interdisciplinary boundaries that is examined and infused thus interconnecting with a gamut of discussion that includes history, literature, philosophy, and the ologies from biology to theology. Although these elements appear extensive, the book by no means resembles a textbook discussion but rather a conversation that expands on one topic and issue that centers on the key topic of mortality and immortality with the conclusion that there is a great possibility that humans may live to be over 200 years old.
In essence, LONG FOR THIS WORLD is an extremely insightful examination of man’s fascination with how long a person can live and to what extent. There is bound to be sections of the book that may entice the reader because of how diverse an approach Weiner takes in explaining this amazing subject that never ceases to end and falls within the same lines as one’s bewilderment with time and space.
Rating: 4 / 5
It was just serendipity that I read this book in the same weekend as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Immortality is on my mind!
This book about the history, philosophy and science of mortality and humanity’s desire for immortality was a good read for an overall view of the subject. In its focus on the great thinkers of history, it reminds me of another book, Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG, which traces the philosophical underpinnings of the practice of extending (and acquiring) debt.
Mr. Weiner’s book intersects with the Henrietta Lacks book early on in the person of Leonard Hayflick, a cell biologist who showed that normal human cells can only divide about 50 times before they get old and tired. He argues that because of this self-limitation, it is impossible for gerontologists to extend human life.
Once I read that, I had little patience for all the theories and attempts at expanding longevity. If you can’t change this basic fact, what’s the point? I really lost patience with the person Mr. Weiner spends most of his time with, Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey. His presence in the book becomes offputting. Who cares what a garrulous gadfly in a British bar thinks, no matter how brilliant a thinker he is said to be? Mr. Weiner falls into the same trap as Rebecca Skloot, the author of Henrietta Lacks. Just as she made the crazed and often incoherent family of Henrietta Lacks the focus of her book, Mr. Weiner tacks his story on a soused and pontificating de Grey. I didn’t want to spend my time in the company of either.
But in reading the two books, I did gain a lot of scientific knowledge, and both authors know how to present highly complex concepts in terms the lay reader can understand. At least I didn’t have to spend the rest of my mortal life trying to decipher the books!
Rating: 3 / 5
The subject matter is very thought provoking and the author doesn’t shy away from the hard questions, in fact, he embraces them. Of course, as trite as it sounds, the trouble with immortality is that it is endless; however, Jonathan Weiner does manage cover this ground quite well in under, roughly three hundred pages. The book is about the oldest problem in science, and it has finally come of age.
There are many interesting facts a reader picks up along the road to the strange science of immortality. Oxygen fuels us and oxygen burns us. Each mortal body isa story of sacrifice and renewal that slowly fails. One hundred thousand people die of the infirmities of old age every single day. Every day we live now, we are given the gift of another five hours to live later on. The average life expectancy of Stone Age babies was probably not much more than twenty/the Roman Empire at its height about twenty-five/Middle Ages about thirty-three/American Revolution 40 in England & less in its 13 colonies/1900 about 47/ 1999 about 76. Life expectancy today is about 80 years in the developed countries. The record holder is in France at 122yrs and 4 months. These and many other interesting facts are sprinkled throughout this fine work.
In his science sections he differentiates between the “skin-out” people who look at the big picture(evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and naturalists) and the “skin-in” people who look at the microscoopic or submicroscopic picture(moleculae biologist tied to physics and chemistry). Both subjects get their due in subject matter and pages.
The specialist in this field are gerontologists who try to understand why our bodies change from youth to age, why we age at all-why we are mortal. Again, as with alot of the subject matter, the facts are recorded, but what they mean are an agreement of “agree to disagree” interpretations. Great for the reader, as he or she gets a whole picture rather than a singular biased viewpoint.
Thus there are many varied perspectives on the subject/ because serendipity will get us in the end. It’s just a matter of what we do to get us there./aging as a disease/there are no technicle obstacles that can’t be overcome.
What I enjoyed most; however, was the the author’s expansive coverage of the subject in a literary fashion/The withering of the roses in the bowl is as drunken and disorderly as their blossuming was regular and precise. In growth you see the genius of life, and in its slow destruction you see the chaos.
Another part that I liked as well was the philosophical aspect/To be a philosopher is to learn how to die/Grieve not for me but mourn for those who stay behind, bound by longings to which the fruit is sorrow.
My favorite quip was a reply to a Sophocles remark/Never to have been born counts highest of all/ and the old Jewish reply was: How many are so lucky? Not one in ten thousand.
Rating: 5 / 5