Venki Ramakrishnan’s book Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality examines the rapid commercial expansion of anti-ageing research while separating rigorous biological science from speculative hyperbole funded by wealthy investors.
What Does the New Science Reveal About Ageing and Immortality?
Anti-ageing has transformed from a scientific backwater into a rapidly growing business sector experiencing an unprecedented boom in popular interest and research funding. Amid this pioneering work, however, a significant amount of speculative nonsense has surfaced, driven frequently by affluent individuals funding outcomes that match their desired goals. Much of the grounded research investigates how humans can extend the healthy portion of their lives rather than achieving radical lifespan increases or cheating biological evolution. Venki Ramakrishnan explores these insights in his book Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality, which was shortlisted for The Royal Society’s Science Book Prize in 2024.
Ramakrishnan won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome, the cellular component that creates proteins using genetic information. Because faults in this process affect overall biological ageing, his background positioned him close to the field without entangling him in commercial ventures. Operating outside direct commercial interests allows him to maintain objectivity regarding therapies and cures, he noted.
How Can We Separate Rigorous Research From Self-Interested Hype?
Ramakrishnan criticized the hype machine that inflates speculative ideas at the expense of verified science within the field. In the last decade, researchers published more than 300,000 studies on ageing, though he noted that quality varies considerably. The gold standard for validation remains randomised controlled trials, where participants are split randomly into treatment and control groups. Ageing studies face severe hurdles due to the vast time and financial investment required, forcing researchers to rely on biomarkers such as inflammation and hormone levels to measure biological age.
Commercial entities selling anti-ageing products frequently avoid rigorous, long-term measurements because unfavorable results would harm their business model. Instead, these companies often rely on observational studies claiming participants or test animals experienced subjective improvements. Wealthy technology entrepreneurs further distort the landscape by attempting to treat biological aging like a software problem that can be solved within months, ignoring the immense complexity of biology.
Why Does Human Longevity Outpace Most Mammalian Species?
Human lifespan correlates closely with body size through the longevity quotient, a metric established in 1991 by ageing expert Stephen Austad and graduate student Kathleen Fischer. The quotient calculates the ratio between a species’ actual average lifespan and the lifespan predicted by general scaling laws. Humans possess a longevity quotient of 5, meaning the species lives five times longer than expected for its physical size. Among all mammals, only 19 species outperform humans: 18 bat species and the naked mole rat.
While life expectancy over the past century increased dramatically due to improved healthcare and lower infant mortality, maximum human lifespan remained largely unchanged. The oldest person to have lived, Jeanne Calment, died at age 122 almost three decades ago. Evolutionary pressures prioritize surviving long enough to reach adulthood and reproduce, rather than ensuring indefinite individual survival. Consequently, evolutionary traits that protect humans early in life can generate harmful cellular damage later, turning conditions like cancer into typical diseases of aging.
What Is the Difference Between Lifespan and Healthspan?
Mainstream scientific research focuses primarily on improving healthspan rather than indefinitely extending total lifespan. This concept, known as the compression of morbidity, was introduced by James Fries in 1980. The primary goal centers on delaying the onset of debilitating age-related conditions like heart disease, cancer, and dementia to reduce years of infirmity. As the number of people living to an older age increases, the prevalence of ill health in old age also rises, highlighting the ongoing challenge of physical infirmity.
Ramakrishnan maintains cautious optimism that targeted treatments will successfully delay disease onset, allowing people to live healthier lives for longer periods. Whether those medical interventions will compress the final decline or simply prolong physical frailty remains an open question in gerontology.
Frequently Asked Questions
What role does physical exercise play in preventing age-related decline?
Ramakrishnan, a lifelong cyclist who builds his own bicycles, notes that cycling provides strong cardiovascular benefits for the heart and blood vessels. However, he warns that cycling works only specific muscle groups, making resistance exercise essential for maintaining muscle mass, strength, and physical stability as people age.
Who is Aubrey de Grey and what are his theories on aging?
Aubrey de Grey is a mathematician who turned to biology with the belief that aging is a solvable problem. His proposed interventions include removing senescent cells that cause chronic inflammation and stopping DNA telomere lengthening mechanisms to prevent cancer, though Ramakrishnan characterizes these projections as wildly optimistic.
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