Author: Bruce A. Carnes Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393245888 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 259
Book Description
"This is by far the best book I've read on the science of aging."—Andrew Weil, M.D. "Life-span Truth Will Set You Free from Age-old Worries," announced the Chicago Tribune upon the first publication of this book. The New England Journal of Medicine confirmed, "For readers interested in aging and longevity, this small book clearly explains the major concepts...extremely enjoyable to read." From NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw to Scientific American to the New York Times, S. Jay Olshansky and Bruce A. Carnes have stirred up controversy and brought clarity to an issue often muddled by exaggeration and pseudoscience. Medical science has uncovered a host of answers to the problems of aging, but many of the most exciting discoveries are buried in scientific journals or overshadowed by popular quick-fix treatments. The Quest for Immortality explains the real science of aging and shows which treatments offered by today's multi-billion-dollar anti-aging industries offer real hope, and which are a waste of money and time.
Author: Adam Gollner Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439109435 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 416
Book Description
An exploration of one of the most universal human obsessions charts the rise of longevity science from its alchemical beginnings to modern-day genetic interventions and enters the world of those whose lives are shaped by a belief in immortality.
Author: Stephen Cave Publisher: Biteback Publishing ISBN: 184954347X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 241
Book Description
There is a cloud-capped peak where gods and immortals while away their infinite days, and since the dawn of humanity everyone - whether they know it or not - has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice and fought wars against those who've decided differently. Each of these four paths - simply staying alive indefinitely, through magic or medicine; being resurrected; persisting as a soul; or living on through one's legacy - is revealed to us by a historical figure who serves as our guide. It is through these diverse individuals - such as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti; vitamin-obsessed Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling; author Mary Shelley; and Alexander the Great - that we come to understand how many of civilisation's greatest achievements have been born of our need to see our essence endure. As optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful, Immortality takes the reader on an eye-opening journey from the beginnings of civilisation to the present day. Bringing together history and philosophy, this fascinating book both enlightens and entertains, investigating whether it just might be possible to live forever, and whether that's something we should actually aspire to. But its most powerful and arresting argument is this - that it is our very preoccupation with defying mortality that has made our civilisation what it is.
Author: Brian C. Muraresku Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 125027091X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 340
Book Description
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.
Author: Chip Walter Publisher: ISBN: 1426219806 Category : HEALTH & FITNESS Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
"Veteran journalist Chip Walter takes us deep inside Silicon Valley's boardrooms and the world's most advanced biomedical labs to reveal the incredible new science of extending human lifespan. Here are the bold business moves funded by Google and made by Apple chairman and Calico CEO Arthur Levinson; the pioneering stem cell techniques developed by scientist Robert Hariri; the transformative enterprises established by genomics genius Craig Venter; and the mind-bending future envisioned by thought leader Ray Kurzweil--all pointing toward a time not too long from now when we will live without disease or diminished faculties far beyond the age of 100. It's an audacious cast of characters, and through their stories you will come to understand how groundbreaking discoveries in gene therapy, molecular biology, and artificial intelligence are cracking the aging process--and could even lead to immortality. As Walter reveals, the quest to cheat death isn't science fiction anymore. It's real, it's serious, and it will change absolutely everything--including our definition of what it means to be alive."--Dust jacket.
Author: James C. S. Lin Publisher: ISBN: 9780300184341 Category : Archaeology and history Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
During the last two centuries BC, the Western Han dynasty of China forged the first stable empire covering all of China and presided over a golden age that shaped much of subsequent Chinese art and culture. From family values to the structure of the civil service, Han thinking and philosophy continue to pervade Chinese society up to the present day - indeed, the majority of Chinese people consider themselves 'Han Chinese'. In the search for immortality, the Han imperial family left an artistic legacy of spectacular beauty and power. The finest of these treasures to have survived - including exquisite jades, silver and goldwork, bronzes and ceramics - have been found in the tombs of the Han imperial family and of a revival 'emperor' of Nanyue.
Author: Stephen Cave Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307884937 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 336
Book Description
If you could live forever, would you want to? Both a fascinating look at the history of our strive for immortality and an investigation into whether living forever is really all it’s cracked up to be. A fascinating work of popular philosophy and history that both enlightens and entertains, Stephen Cave investigates whether it just might be possible to live forever and whether we should want to. He also makes a powerful argument that it’s our very preoccupation with defying mortality that drives civilization. Central to this book is the metaphor of a mountaintop where one can find the Immortals. Since the dawn of humanity, everyone – whether they know it or not—has been trying to climb that mountain. But there are only four paths up its treacherous slope, and there have only ever been four paths. Throughout history, people have wagered everything on their choice of the correct path, and fought wars against those who’ve chosen differently. In drawing back the curtain on what compels humans to “keep on keeping on,” Cave engages the reader in a number of mind-bending thought experiments. He teases out the implications of each immortality gambit, asking, for example, how long a person would live if they did manage to acquire a perfectly disease-free body. Or what would happen if a super-being tried to round up the atomic constituents of all who’ve died in order to resurrect them. Or what our loved ones would really be doing in heaven if it does exist. We’re confronted with a series of brain-rattling questions: What would happen if tomorrow humanity discovered that there is no life but this one? Would people continue to please their boss, vie for the title of Year’s Best Salesman? Would three-hundred-year projects still get started? If the four paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere—if there is no getting up to the summit—is there still reason to live? And can civilization survive? Immortality is a deeply satisfying book, as optimistic about the human condition as it is insightful about the true arc of history.
Author: Bruce A. Carnes
Author: Adam Gollner
Author: Stephen Cave
Author: Brian C. Muraresku
Author: Gene Savoy
Author: Chip Walter
Author: James C. S. Lin
Author: George Gallup
Author: Stephen Cave
Author: Rhuddlwm Gawr