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The long and the short of it : the science of life span and aging / Jonathan Silvertown.

by Silvertown, Jonathan W.

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The University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Life spans (Biology) -- Research.

9780226757896 (hc.)

0226757897 (hc.)

194 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [163]-188) and index.

Death and immortality : destination -- An hourglass on the run : life span -- After many a summer : aging -- The eternal thing : heredity -- Green age : plants -- The visionary solution : natural selection -- Semele's sacrifice : suicide -- Live fast, die young : pace -- Forever young? : mechanisms -- Appendix. Scientific names of species mentioned in the text.

Everything that lives will die -- the fundamental fact of life. But not everyone dies at the same age. A giant fungus found in Michigan has been alive since the Ice Age, while a dragonfly lives but four months, a mayfly half an hour. What accounts for these variations -- and what can we learn from them that might help us understand our own aging? Biologist Jonathan Silvertown examines the scientific study of longevity and aging, drawing on the latest scientific developments. What causes aging, and what determines the length of an individual life? Why has the average human life span increased so dramatically in the past two centuries? If evolution favors those who leave the most descendants, why haven€™t we evolved to be immortal? The answers to these puzzles and more emerge from close examination of the whole natural history of life span and aging, from fruit flies, nematodes, redwoods, and much more.

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