Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality
Description
In Long for This World, Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Weiner takes the reader on an intellectual quest to find out whether there is any validity to the belief-held by many highly intelligent individuals-that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's Tomb in Ravenna, Weiner meets the leading minds in the field and he tells the dramatic story of how aging could once and for all be conquered by the latest scientific advances. Long for This World displays Weiner's abilities as a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter, demonstrating his gift for making cutting-edge science understandable.
"I love this book. It is a mesmerizing blend of vivid (sometimes hilarious) reporting, wide-ranging scholarship, and the thoughtful probing of a great mystery. Like everything Jonathan Weiner does, it is far more than the sum of its parts."-James GleickProduct Details
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About the Author
Jonathan Weiner is one of the most distinguished popular-science writers in the country: his books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, Time, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and many other newspapers and magazines, and he is a former editor at The Sciences. His books include The Beak of the Finch; Time, Love, Memory; and His Brother's Keeper. He lives in New York, where he teaches science writing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Reviews
"In LONG FOR THIS WORLD, Jonathan Weiner brings his immense talents--his masterful prose, his deep reporting, and his ability to see connections across the human experience--to one of science's most intriguing frontiers: the science of aging."--Carl Zimmer, author of THE TANGLED BANK: An Introduction to Evolution and PARASITE REX
"LONG FOR THIS WORLD is a rich and fascinating study of the longing for immortality and our lingering doubts about the possibility of surpassing our mortal limits."--Simon Critchley, author of THE BOOK OF DEAD PHILOSOPHERS
"I admire all of Jonathan Weiner's books, but this one especially because of its intellectual depth and clarity, its sense of personal involvement, and its tone and wit. The chapter on the evolution of aging is particularly brilliant! I couldn't put the book down."--Oliver Sacks
"I love this book. It is a mesmerizing blend of vivid (sometimes hilarious) reporting, wide-ranging scholarship, and the thoughtful probing of a great mystery. Like everything Jonathan Weiner does, it is far more than the sum of its parts."--James Gleick
"Jonathan Weiner has done it again. In LONG FOR THIS WORLD, one of our finest science journalists explores the shadowy sword hanging over us all, weaving together the latest research with time-tested cultural wisdom. Will we ever live forever? And would we even want to?"--Jonah Lehrer, author of HOW WE DECIDE
"A great trip.... Weiner writes engagingly [and] explores the fractured, fuzzy science and pseudoscience of immortality."--Abraham Verghese, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Taxes may be inevitable, but death? Maybe not so much, suggests Jonathan Weiner, one of our finest science writers, in this searching and surprisingly witty look at the scientific odds against tomorrow."--Timothy Ferris
"A brilliant and improbably funny look inside the mind-bending science of immortality."--Village Voice
"The promise of eternal youth is both tantalizingly close and far-fetched in this fascinating primer on longevity research . . . . An engrossing tour of cutting-edge research . . . . Weiner's erudite, elegant exposition of the underlying science is stimulating yet sobering."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
