Immortality
How Science is Extending Your Life Span and Changing the World
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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By:
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Ben Bova
About this listen
The first immortals are already living among us. You might be one of them. At first glance, that arresting statement sounds as if it might come from a science-fiction story. But it is an astonishing, exciting fact - as explained clearly and cogently by Dr. Ben Bova.
In his distinguished career, Dr. Bova has predicted the discovery of life on Mars, the space race of the 1960s, solar-powered satellites, the discovery of organic chemicals in interstellar space, virtual reality, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the advent of international peacekeeping forces, the discovery of ice on the Moon, and electronic book publishing. Now he explores the future effects of science and technology on the human life span - and discovers that one day, death will no longer be the inevitable end of life.
Dr. Bova guides listeners through worldwide research into the biochemical processes that cause aging and death, and shows what scientists are discovering about stopping, perhaps even reversing, these processes.
According to Dr. Bova, if you have a normal life expectancy today, the medical and biological advances that will be achieved over the next 10 to 20 years will probably allow you to live long past 100. The longer you live, the more knowledge scientists will glean, and the further they will be able to extend your life span.
With crystal-clear, utterly accessible prose, Dr. Bova explains how science could maintain the youth and vigor of a 50-year-old indefinitely, perhaps even reversing the effects of aging. He also offers provocative thoughts on the tumultuous societal consequences of such biomedical breakthroughs, as greatly extended life spans and virtual immortality transform institutions like Medicare, Social Security, pension plans, life insurance, even the very foundations of work and retirement. Here is a compelling, startling, understandable, and vitally important study of the greatest challenge - and the most tantalizing opportunity - ever faced by humankind.
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- By Ronald E on 04-12-10
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A Crack in Creation
- Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
- By: Jennifer A. Doudna, Samuel H. Sternberg
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new gene-editing tool CRISPR - a revolutionary new technology that she helped create - to make heritable changes in human embryos.
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In to the abyss we ascend, a scary future
- By Philomath on 06-17-17
By: Jennifer A. Doudna, and others
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Radiation
- What It Is, What You Need to Know
- By: Robert Peter Gale, Eric Lax
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The essential guide to radiation: the good, the bad, and the utterly fascinating, explained with unprecedented clarity. Earth, born in a nuclear explosion, is a radioactive planet; without radiation, life would not exist. And while radiation can be dangerous, it is also deeply misunderstood and often mistakenly feared. Now Robert Peter Gale, M.D. - the doctor to whom concerned governments turned in the wake of the Chernobyl and Fukushima - in collaboration with medical writer Eric Lax draws on an exceptional depth of knowledge to correct myths and establish facts.
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A great and accessible introduction to the field o
- By Neuron on 04-12-13
By: Robert Peter Gale, and others
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Welcome to the Microbiome
- Getting to Know the Trillions of Bacteria and Other Microbes In, On, and Around You
- By: Rob DeSalle, Susan L. Perkins
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Suddenly, research findings require a paradigm shift in our view of the microbial world. The Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health is well under way, and unprecedented scientific technology now allows the censusing of trillions of microbes inside and on our bodies as well as in the places where we live, work, and play. This intriguing, up-to-the-minute book for scientists and nonscientists alike explains what researchers are discovering about the microbe world and what the implications are for modern science and medicine.
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I learned so much from this book. I am happy.
- By Jonathan Miller on 09-08-18
By: Rob DeSalle, and others
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The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
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It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
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Happy Accidents
- Serendipity in Major Medical Breakthroughs in the Twentieth Century
- By: Morton A. Meyers
- Narrated by: Richard Waterhouse
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Happy Accidents is a fascinating, entertaining, and highly accessible look at the surprising role serendipity has played in some of the most important medical discoveries in the 20th century. What do penicillin, chemotherapy drugs, X-rays, Valium, the Pap smear, and Viagra have in common? They were each discovered accidentally, stumbled upon in the search for something else. In discussing medical breakthroughs, Dr. Morton Meyers makes a cogent, highly engaging argument for a more creative, rather than purely linear, approach to science. And it may just save our lives!
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Don't waste your money!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-20-16
By: Morton A. Meyers
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The Compatibility Gene
- How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves
- By: Daniel M. Davis
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of the 25,000 genes we possess are the same for all of us. Compatibility genes are those that vary most from person to person and give each of us a unique molecular signature. These genes determine both the extent to which we are susceptible to a vast range of illnesses and the different ways each of us fights disease.
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If interested in medicine, got to read
- By Howard Sterling on 06-29-16
By: Daniel M. Davis
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code
- By: Sue Armstrong
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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p53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code reveals the tale of the search for this gene, as well as the excitement of the hunt for new cures - the hype, the lost opportunities, the blind alleys, and the thrilling breakthroughs. As the long-anticipated revolution in cancer treatment tailored to each individual patient's symptoms starts to take off at last, p53 is still at the forefront of the game. This is a timely tale of scientific discovery and advances in our understanding of a disease that still affects more than one in three of us at some point in our lives.
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Excellent story! Unfortunate narration at start
- By Adriana on 12-25-14
By: Sue Armstrong
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10% Human
- How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness
- By: Alanna Collen
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony. Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies and becoming a healthy human is impossible without them.
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Must read for anyone that wants to be healthy
- By T. Kalinowski on 06-05-21
By: Alanna Collen
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The Truth About Cancer
- By: Ty M. Bollinger
- Narrated by: Ty M. Bollinger
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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One out of three women alive today, and one out of two men, will face a cancer diagnosis, according to the World Health Organization. Ty Bollinger takes this personally: in the course of a decade, he says, "I lost my entire family to cancer. I don't believe I had to lose them." The Truth about Cancer has been written for one simple reason: to share the knowledge we need to protect ourselves, treat ourselves, and in some cases save our lives or the lives of those we love.
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save a life with this valuable information.
- By edwin matias on 12-30-16
By: Ty M. Bollinger
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The Story of the Human Body
- Evolution, Health, and Disease
- By: Daniel Lieberman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman - chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field - gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning this paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease.
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Could Have Been Good, but...
- By Trebla on 04-08-18
By: Daniel Lieberman
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Viruses, Plagues, and History
- Past, Present, and Future
- By: Michael B. A. Oldstone
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of viruses and humanity is a story of fear and ignorance, of grief and heartbreak, and of great bravery and sacrifice. Michael Oldstone tells all these stories as he illuminates the history of the devastating diseases that have tormented humanity, focusing mostly on the most famous viruses. For this revised edition, Oldstone includes discussions of new viruses like SARS, bird flu, virally caused cancers, chronic wasting disease, and West Nile. Viruses, Plagues, and History paints a sweeping portrait of humanity's long-standing conflict with our unseen viral enemies.
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very detailed, but very statistical
- By ekhensel15 on 01-12-19
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Life Unfolding
- How the Human Body Creates Itself
- By: Jamie A. Davies
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Where did I come from? Why do I have two arms but just one head? How is my left leg the same size as my right one? Why are the fingerprints of identical twins not identical? How did my brain learn to learn? Why must I die? Questions like these remain biology's deepest and most ancient challenges. They force us to confront a fundamental biological problem: How can something as large and complex as a human body organize itself from the simplicity of a fertilized egg?
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Fascinating Biology ; Distracting Narration
- By Tim on 03-01-15
By: Jamie A. Davies
What listeners say about Immortality
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Keith McK
- 04-20-12
Can we get a second edition?
Would you listen to Immortality again? Why?
Yes. While I kept up with most of it, I am positive that there are sections I could have understood better. It is a fascinating listen that gives you a lot of information and leaves you with much to think about. Do we want this future to come about or not.
What other book might you compare Immortality to and why?
Not sure I have any that I could. This book is predicting a not so distant future, yet it is more like a journal of recent events. It is science fiction and journalism in a single package.
Have you listened to any of Stefan Rudnicki’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Stefan is a master. I doubt that he could ever deliver a poor performance. He does this every bit as well as he does Ender's Game or any other tale.
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
The science around the cell reproduction and the limits to how often some cells can reproduce.
Any additional comments?
It is now nearly a decade since this book was published. I'd love to see a sequel or second edition with updates on the progress and notes on if Dr. Bova would stick with his original timelines or adjust them in or out.
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Overall
- Jill
- 08-20-10
Mountains of information
This book, Immortality, was a enjoyable read. It's packed with information and research in the history of science in the field of immortality. The only down side for me was that the book was somewhat dated. As I'm listening to the science on telemers the author states that 'currently, no known way yet for the average person to extend the life of telemers'. (paraphrased) This caused me to pause, since today we know that multi-vitamins especially C & E can allow the telemers to not shrink as fast, and in essences therefore, increasing the life of a telemer. I then checked the publish date on this book and saw that although audible.com is stating the publish date as 5/10 it is actually 1999. /sigh ... So no wonder the information in here is somewhat dated. I do which that audible would in the future make sure they are entering both the publish date and the audible date so that customers can make a more informed decision as to whether they want to spend 7 1/2 hours or not reading (listening) to a particular book. However, It was a fasinating read, and even somewhat dated contains a huge amount of information.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Lady Pamela
- 09-18-20
Not For Me
The hypothesis drags you in. But, the follow up is technical jargon and gobbledygook that is unappealing in audio form. The writing is rambling premature conjecture. Not my kind of book and not enjoyable reading for me. DNF, in fact, I did not get past about an hour of this 7.4 hour book. Bova wrote some cool sci-fi, but the non-fiction is not interesting.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marcus
- 03-13-12
Good for beginners
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
For me, not really. This book is strongly geared towards lay people without a scientific background. In fact, the book simply acts as a scientific review of research relating to aging at the time (1998, so a lot of the info is rather dated) for the layperson. If you already have some grasp of life extension research, I wouldn't recommend this book. Many of the concepts are over simplified to the point of bordering on being false. I give this book 2 stars basically just because it promotes the idea of aging being programmed.
What could Ben Bova have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Include more specific case studies and why he thinks such studies will lead to immortality. He doesn't really give any original ideas.
What didn’t you like about Stefan Rudnicki’s performance?
I wasn't sure if it was read by a computer or not. There were some parts that definitely sounded very much like a computer voice, and other parts where I thought it was too good to be a computer. And many words, such as
Did Immortality inspire you to do anything?
No.
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Overall
- Peter
- 06-19-11
A really bad choice for me
This book is very simplistic. If you know anything about biology (like you have taken college cell bio) you will be bored as I was. Also, the book is old, 1999. It is out of date. My mistake was to look at the release date of the audiobook and conclude it was current and not to find out when it was first published in print. The narrator's voice is just so deep as to be distracting, and he mispronounces medical and scientific words. Also, my mistake, I should have listened to the sample. Now, if Mr. Bova would write a 2011 version, getting a new reader, skipping the basic biology, and prognosticate, speculate, and predict for 300 pages, well that would be attractive.
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9 people found this helpful