WSJ Review of Ending Aging
The Wall Street Journal reviews Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. (If the direct link is blocked by the WSJ subscription wall, you can find a PDF version of the review in the Immortality Institute book discussion): "de Grey opens by explaining his mission: extending the human life span for hundreds of years. If there is a War on Drugs and a War on Terror, then why not a War on Aging, since these days aging kills just about everyone? This idea, he says, draws irrational objections from otherwise smart people. Many believe that aging is not a disease but an inescapable aspect of life, programmed into our bodies. Readers who make it through the book's geeky midsection will come away with a workable understanding of [de Grey's] provocative view: Old age may be only the consequence of lax biological housecleaning. ... He thinks more like an engineer than a scientist: Never mind how the body works, can we fix it to keep it running longer? In the book's final section, he decries the misplaced priorities that have hindered this kind of anti-aging research: Scientists can get millions of dollars to seek cures for Alzheimer's disease that afflicts the elderly, but hardly anyone gets paid to figure out how to keep people from growing old in the first place. Part of the problem is a complacent adherence to the status quo, [de Grey] says, but he also thinks that scientists are afraid to encourage a revolutionary initiative such as rejuvenative biotech research."
Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118919946556720937.html?mod=googlenews_wsj