cover image Cracking the Aging Code: The New Science of Growing Old—and What It Means for Staying Young

Cracking the Aging Code: The New Science of Growing Old—and What It Means for Staying Young

Josh Mitteldorf and Dorion Sagan. Flatiron, $27.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-06170-6

Mitteldorf, a theoretical biologist, and Sagan, a science writer (and the son of science educators Carl Sagan and Lynn Margulis), argue that genes are programmed to promote their own long-term survival as well as to die for group survival and population stability. The existence of cellular death programs could be seen as supporting the group selection theory of evolution, in addition to the far more accepted kin selection theory. Yet this notion is far from proven. The authors’ contention that caloric restriction can lead to prolonged life is widely accepted, but the same is not true of their assertion that predators control their own numbers so they won’t overwhelm their prey. Furthermore, too many unsupported statements erode the reader’s confidence in the authors’ thesis. The book states that “people who are most prominent in telomere research tend to believe that [the enzyme] telomerase will prove to be the philosopher’s stone, the fountain of youth, the elixir of Gilgamesh about which humanity has dreamed for thousands of years.” However, the authors identify neither those prominent people nor the research leading them to that ostensible belief. This is unquestionably a fun, provocative read, but it is marred by too much hyperbole and too little support. Agent: Gillian MacKenzie, Gillian MacKenzie Agency. (June)