Can We Slow Down the Ageing Process?

31/10/2024

The quest for an elixir of life that could stop or even turn back ageing is something that has gripped humankind for centuries.

From the search for the philosopher’s stone, a legendary alchemical substance that would grant immortality, to the increasingly wild self-experimentation by Silicon Valley’s richest tech bros, the fascination with eternal youth remains strong.

But what can the latest scientific developments offer in the way of hope for extending life and perhaps even reversing ageing?

Nobel Prize-winning structural biologist Professor Venki Ramakrishnan has published a book called Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality, which is shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.

In it, he explains the latest scientific understanding of exactly why we age and how we might prevent it. He examines cutting-edge efforts to extend lifespan, and raises profound questions around death, ageing, and how to increase our chances of living long, healthy and fulfilled lives.

“The reason I wrote the book is it’s a big existential question: why do we age and die?” says Prof Ramakrishnan, who leads a lab in the Structural Studies Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

“I think we may be the only species that’s aware of it. And it’s influenced human thought ever since we became aware of mortality. Religions all have different views of what happens when we die, and they all view it as a transition rather than some final exit. But for most of our existence, there was nothing we could do about it. It’s only in the last 50 years that molecular biology has made huge strides in understanding what happens at the molecular level as we age, and how that build-up of damage eventually results in death.

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