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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Do you want to live to be 200? How about 500? Maybe forever? Ben Bova, famed science fiction author and futurist, predicts that within the lifetimes of many people alive in 1998, molecular biology and genetics will reveal the secrets of cellular immortality, freeing people of the "threescore years and ten" most of us are allotted. Further, Bova asserts in Immortality, we will be living those long lives in healthy, youngish bodies, subject only to death by accident. To back up this claim, Bova offers a nice, clear overview of how genetics has come to the brink of science fiction, made accessible to readers unfamiliar with the terminology through the use of explanatory sidebars and basic definitions. If you find yourself doubting this prediction, two things might make you reassess your opinion: (1) Ben Bova was right when he foretold the advent of the Internet, solar-powered satellites, electronic books, and many other wonders of the 20th century, and (2) in an extraordinary 50-year time line, he shows how fast and furious technological developments have come--including things that would have been deemed impossible mere months before they happened. After showing how science is laying the groundwork for achieving incredible human longevity, Immortality examines the ways society, government, the environment, and personal responsibility might change in the face of it. No pessimist or technophobe, Bova assures us that immortal people will (by necessity) become more farsighted and thoughtful about their lives and the lives of others. The search for earthly immortality has occupied humans throughout history ... how long do you want to live? --Therese Littleton
From Publishers Weekly
The quest for human immortality is ongoing in science labs around the world, and the possibility is now closer to science fact than fiction, claims Bova, who as a veteran and prolific author of science books (Space Travel, etc.) and SF (Moonwar, etc.) might know. Bova admits that few scientists would agree with that claim but that scientists "are usually not the best predictors of their own futures." Again Bova lives up to his reputation of writing straightforward, understandable prose to explain recent scientific advances. We are entering the fourth era of medicine, he observes, one in which science is working on solving the riddle of aging. He leads readers through a tautological compendium of the mechanics of cellular life and death. Why do certain bacteria and cancer cells apparently live forever, when those trillions that make up the human body are subject to senescence and death? Is aging caused by entropy, the genetic damage that accumulates daily until our genes are unable to repair themselves? Or is it a by-product of the progressive shortening of the telomeres that cap each chromosome? Bova subscribes to the telomeric explanation, believing that the issue may be resolved by selectively injecting telomerase analogs into certain types of cells to prohibit them from aging. Over the decades, many of Bova's scientific predictions have come true: the space race of the 1960s, solar-powered satellites, virtual reality, the discovery of water ice on the moon and even electronic book publishing. The promise of immortality based on scientific advancement is his most ambitious prophecy and, judging from the passion he bestows on it in this routine book about an outlandish subject, his most ardent hope.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Do you want to live to be 200? How about 500? Maybe forever? Ben Bova, famed science fiction author and futurist, predicts that within the lifetimes of many people alive in 1998, molecular biology and genetics will reveal the secrets of cellular immortality, freeing people of the "threescore years and ten" most of us are allotted. Further, Bova asserts in Immortality, we will be living those long lives in healthy, youngish bodies, subject only to death by accident. To back up this claim, Bova offers a nice, clear overview of how genetics has come to the brink of science fiction, made accessible to readers unfamiliar with the terminology through the use of explanatory sidebars and basic definitions. If you find yourself doubting this prediction, two things might make you reassess your opinion: (1) Ben Bova was right when he foretold the advent of the Internet, solar-powered satellites, electronic books, and many other wonders of the 20th century, and (2) in an extraordinary 50-year time line, he shows how fast and furious technological developments have come--including things that would have been deemed impossible mere months before they happened. After showing how science is laying the groundwork for achieving incredible human longevity, Immortality examines the ways society, government, the environment, and personal responsibility might change in the face of it. No pessimist or technophobe, Bova assures us that immortal people will (by necessity) become more farsighted and thoughtful about their lives and the lives of others. The search for earthly immortality has occupied humans throughout history ... how long do you want to live? --Therese Littleton
From Publishers Weekly
The quest for human immortality is ongoing in science labs around the world, and the possibility is now closer to science fact than fiction, claims Bova, who as a veteran and prolific author of science books (Space Travel, etc.) and SF (Moonwar, etc.) might know. Bova admits that few scientists would agree with that claim but that scientists "are usually not the best predictors of their own futures." Again Bova lives up to his reputation of writing straightforward, understandable prose to explain recent scientific advances. We are entering the fourth era of medicine, he observes, one in which science is working on solving the riddle of aging. He leads readers through a tautological compendium of the mechanics of cellular life and death. Why do certain bacteria and cancer cells apparently live forever, when those trillions that make up the human body are subject to senescence and death? Is aging caused by entropy, the genetic damage that accumulates daily until our genes are unable to repair themselves? Or is it a by-product of the progressive shortening of the telomeres that cap each chromosome? Bova subscribes to the telomeric explanation, believing that the issue may be resolved by selectively injecting telomerase analogs into certain types of cells to prohibit them from aging. Over the decades, many of Bova's scientific predictions have come true: the space race of the 1960s, solar-powered satellites, virtual reality, the discovery of water ice on the moon and even electronic book publishing. The promise of immortality based on scientific advancement is his most ambitious prophecy and, judging from the passion he bestows on it in this routine book about an outlandish subject, his most ardent hope.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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