An article from the Prospect looks at aging and longevity as a program - which is, most likely, the wrong perspective for human biochemistry. "Ageing in humans, as in other mammals, appears to be a co-ordinated process orchestrated by a relatively small number of genes. If this is the case, then it makes sense to tackle many age-related diseases through this genetic core rather than treating each one as a separate case - with the possible exception of some brain conditions." So near and yet so far; aging appears to be an uncoordinated stochastic process stemming from a relatively small range of different types of molecular damage. There are a range of other errors and old, abandoned views in the article; I leave their discovery as an exercise for the reader. It is articles of this sort that show we must continue to work hard to make the case supported by the most recent science - that human longevity is plastic, and can be greatly extended via future biotechnology.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=8152
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