Cheating TIme, Roger Gosden

Cheating Time, Science, Sex and Ageing, Roger Gosden

While laboratory and clinical medicine strive to stave off the problems of aging, today's media-dominated society demands that we not only feel good but look good. The cosmetic industry panders to these preoccupations and makes rich pickings by concealing nature. The science of gerontology, or ageing, is more than skin-deep. It seeks to explain, and possibly even eradicate, the effects of ageing.

Cheating Time was written for everyone who is curious about the ageing of their body. It explains what ageing is, who ages and who is 'immortal' - and how and why - so that the whole landscape of age changes in the body can be appreciated. In it, Professor Roger Gosden explores the realms of reproductive biology and examines the curious trade-off between our reproductive capacity and our lifespan, showing how crucial the sex hormones are to our general youthfulness and well-being. He also explains how the decay of living cells is not fixed by the laws of physics but is affected by the same forces that have shaped our bodies, thus introducing the possibility of change, of stopping the tide of decay and decrepitude. Despite the remarkable discoveries made in recent years, the effects of time are still with us and we may not be able to defeat the ageing process altogether. Yet we are learning to cheat time in all sorts of ways, whether by living longer - and with greater good health, or by extending our biological clocks that bit further. The scientific outlook is no longer one of automatic and inevitable decline, but of tremendous developments and hope for the future. Accessible and compelling, Cheating Time is a fascinating account of one of the most important new areas of scientific research. It shows Roger Gosden to be a major new voice in the field of popular science. 

Details

• Hardcover with Dust cover 
• ISBN: 9780333628232
• Condition: Good 
  
• Publisher: MACMILLAN