About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

ISBN-100618095241

ISBN-139780618095247

eBay Product ID (ePID)2420264

Product Key Features

Book TitleMerchants of Immortality : Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension

Number of Pages448 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2003

TopicLife Sciences / Genetics & Genomics, Longevity

GenreHealth & Fitness, Science

TypeTextbook

AuthorStephen S. Hall

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight27.2 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2002-192155

ReviewsA timely and engrossing account of the high-stakes science of life extension....This is top-drawer journalism., "A timely and engrossing account of the high-stakes science of life extension....This is top-drawer journalism." Publishers Weekly, Starred "A carefully documented examination of how society deals with life-and-death matters." Kirkus Reviews, Starred "An important survey of the entire landscape of the science aimed at extending human life....we all owe [Hall] a vote of thanks." --JoAnn C. Gutin Newsday "A fascinating, accurate and accessible account of some of [the] contemporary efforts to combat aging." --Robert H. Binstock The New York Times "[C]ompelling . . . Merchants of Immortality is a highly readable and important book." --Shannon Brownlee The Washington Post, "[C]ompelling . . . Merchants of Immortality is a highly readable and important book." --Shannon Brownlee, "A fascinating, accurate and accessible account of some of [the] contemporary efforts to combat aging." --Robert H. Binstock, "An important survey of the entire landscape of the science aimed at extending human life....we all owe [Hall] a vote of thanks." --JoAnn C. Gutin

Dewey Edition21

Dewey Decimal613/.0438

Edition DescriptionTeacher's edition

Table Of ContentContents Prologue:The Never-Ending Life 1 1 The Hayflick Limit 14 2 "A Circle Has No Ends" 42 3 The Born-Again Darwinian 60 4 "Money for Jam" 78 5 Controlling the Headwaters 92 6 "The White House Was Nervous . . ." 105 7 Cloning in Silico 127 8 Hay'ick Unlimited 146 9 "Mamas, Don"t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys . . ." 158 10 Dead in the Water 174 11 Elixir 189 12 Unk! 206 13 Street-Fightin" Man 225 14 The Snowflake Intervention 245 15 The Breath of Life 272 16 Free the Bush 64! 294 17 Beatitude 314 Epilogue:Finitude 338 Notes 361 Bibliography 414 Acknowledgments 417 Index 421

SynopsisAn award-winning writer explores science's boldest frontier - extension of the human life span - with the researchers and entrepreneurs who are racing to create medicines that will allow us to live longer and better. Aging, cancer, stem cells, cloning - the themes of Merchants of Immortality are the stuff of today's headlines, yet they reflect some of humankind's most ancient hopes and fears. Stephen S. Hall delves behind the headlines to reveal just how close scientists are to fulfilling hopes of longer, healthier lives. Merchants of Immortality tackles profound social questions: How close are we to cloning humans? Can stem cell therapies tame illnesses such as heart attacks, Parkinson's disease, anddiabetes? How long might our children live? Hall's account of life-extension research is as dramatic as it is authoritative. The story follows a close-knit but fractious band of scientists and entrepreneurs who work in the shadowy area between profit and the public good. Hall tracks the science of aging back to its father figure, the iconoclastic Leonard Hayflick, who was the first to show that cells age and whose epic legal battles with the federal government cleared the path for today's biotech visionaries. Chief among those is the charismatic Michael West, a former creationist who founded the first biotech company devoted to aging research. West has won both ardent admirers and committed foes in his relentless quest to promote stem cells, therapeutic cloning, and other technologies of "practical immortality." Merchants of Immortality breathes scintillating life into the most momentous science of our day, assesses the political and bioethical controversies it has spawned, and explores its potentially dramatic effecton the length and quality of our lives.

LC Classification NumberQP85.H255 2003