Ageless - by Andrew Steele (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A fascinating look at how scientists are working to help doctors treat the aging process itself, helping us all to lead longer, healthier lives." --Sanjay Gupta, MD

Aging--not cancer, not heart disease--is the underlying cause of most human death and suffering. The same cascade of biological changes that renders us wrinkled and gray also opens the door to dementia and disease. We work furiously to conquer each individual disease, but we never think to ask: Is aging itself necessary? Nature tells us it is not: there are tortoises and salamanders who are spry into old age and whose risk of dying is the same no matter how old they are, a phenomenon known as "biological immortality." In Ageless, Andrew Steelecharts the astounding progress science has made in recent years to secure the same for humans: to help us become old without getting frail, to live longer without ill health or disease.

Review Quotes

"Writing with the vim of a Bill Bryson and the technical knowledge of a scientist, Steele . . . gives us a chance to grasp what's at stake in this dazzling, daunting age where big data meets human biology." --The Independent (London)

"Entertaining and thoughtful." --The Wall Street Journal

"An immensely important book. Steele surveys the biology of human aging, as well as the cutting-edge research on how to prevent it." --Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History

"Andrew Steele wants to make birthdays fun again. He knows that once we reach a certain age, most of us greet the turn of another year with at least a little dread. That's because we assume that 'getting older' inevitably means 'getting old, ' with all the increased frailty and diminished vitality we associate with advancing age. But getting on in years doesn't have to mean becoming elderly, Steele argues--and . . . he does a surprisingly effective job of decoupling the two." --The New York Times

"A hopeful message for all those facing this prospect [of ageing] (ie, everyone)." --The Economist

"Fascinating." --The Times (London)

"A rich and exciting exploration of that surprisingly intriguing topic we'd rather not talk about: old age" --The Irish Times

"An essential book for anyone interested in the fast-developing science of longevity." --Jim Mellon, chairman of Juvenescence

"What Steele says is both revolutionary and important--life-changing in the true sense of the word. His thinking is bold, visionary, utopian." --The Herald (Scotland)

"Good science in service of a convincing case that vast life extension is inevitable." --Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating, stimulating, and pleasingly practical guide to the science of aging and how we might be able to bend the arrow of biological time to improve our health." --Kat Arney, author of Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal

"An exhilarating journey." --The Daily Telegraph

"Steele describes how the field of aging biology moved from hope to promise. This is a masterly road map for interested laypeople, scientists at large, and also geroscientists like myself--I was surprised how much I learned." --Nir Barzilai, MD, author of Age Later: Health Span, Life Span, and the New Science of Longevity

"A fascinating read with almost every page bursting with extraordinary facts." --The Mail on Sunday

"Ageless explains the extraordinary achievements and promise of current scientific research around longevity. Read it and prepare to think differently about your future." --Andrew Scott, professor of economics, London Business School, and co-author of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity

About the Author

After obtaining a PhD in physics from the University of Oxford, Andrew Steele decided that aging was the most important scientific challenge of our time and switched fields to computational biology. He worked at the Francis Crick Institute, using machine learning to decode our DNA and predict heart attacks using patients' medical records. He is now a full-time science writer and presenter based in London. He has appeared on the BBC and on Discovery, Inc.'s Science Channel.