If you are interested in the how and why behind aging, Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age will explain current aging research in an easily understandable manner while opening up a whole new frontier of science to lay readers.
Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age is definitely a popular science book. The definitions of terms and especially acronyms are written in plain English. The science is clearly explained. However, it is the conclusions drawn that are stunning. Experiments in worms have shown it is possible to extend life tenfold. However, it appears that “ageing is the price we pay for protection against cancer.” Unfortunately, many of the proposed aging solutions caused similar issues. Just a note on the worms: the roundworms carried on the space shuttle Columbia for experimentation were the only survivors of the explosion that killed everything else. Some of their descendants were carried eight years later to the International Space Station on the Endeavor.
I found this book to be really interesting because I didn’t know anything about how the aging process works or any of the multitude of research projects trying to stop it. I would recommend not talking to your 20-something daughter about the importance of the FOXO gene variant, where you basically won the old age lottery. My daughter’s eyes glazed over sometime during the first sentence. I should have started with the fact that fruit flies share 60% of our genes and the worms mentioned above only share 33%. I just have to give this book 4.5 stars! I couldn’t put it down!
Thanks to Bloomsbury Sigma and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.