Research Catalog

Title

The long tomorrow : how advances in evolutionary biology can help us postpone aging / Michael R. Rose.

Author

Rose, Michael R. (Michael Robertson), 1955-

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 174 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

• "In The Long Tomorrow, Michael R. Rose offers us an account of the modern science of aging, spiced with intriguing stories of his own career and leavened with the author's engaging sense of humor and rare ability to make contemporary research understandable to nonscientists. The book ranges from Rose's first experiments while a graduate student - counting a million fruit fly eggs, which took 3,000 hours over the course of a year - to some of his key scientific discoveries. We see how some of his earliest experiments helped demonstrate that "the force of natural selection" was key to understanding the aging process - a major breakthrough. Rose describes how he created the well-known Methuselah Flies, fruit flies that live far longer than average.
• Equally important, Rose surveys the entire field, offering colorful portraits of many leading scientists and shedding light on research findings from around the world. We learn that rodents given fifteen to forty percent fewer calories live about that much longer, and that volunteers in Biosphere II, who lived on reduced caloric intake for two years, all had improved vital signs. Perhaps most interesting, we discover that aging hits a plateau and stops - at least, it does so in fruit flies."--Jacket.

Subject

• Aging
• Biological Evolution
• Biology
• Evolution
• Longevity
• Longevity

Genre/Form

Popular Work

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-161) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The sphinx and the Rabbi -- Maynard Smith's shirts -- Cell gang -- The force -- Goon show Einstein -- Tiny methuselahs -- The postman rings again -- Cheshire cat cost -- Birds and bees -- Deadly serendipity -- One can't be too rich or too thin -- Many-headed monster -- Woody Allen and superman -- Not even Oppenheimer -- The long tomorrow -- Travels with the boatman.

ISBN

0195179390 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2005001820

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library