The Quest to Beat Aging
Scientific American Presents

Digital subscribers-sign in for full access

Cover; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Masthead; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Introduction: When Life Knows No Bounds; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Mark Fischetti, Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

Postponing death changes the meaning of life

Getting Ever Older/How Long Have You Got?; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Kathryn Brown; 8 Page(s)

The first 150-year-old person might be alive right now

Getting Ever Older/Design for Living; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Polly Shulman; 4 Page(s)

What centenarians can teach us about how to grow old

Getting Ever Older/From Baby Boom to Geezer Glut; The Quest to Beat Aging; by J.R. Brandstrader; 4 Page(s)

By 2030, one in five Americans will be a senior citizen

Getting Ever Older/Social Insecurity; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Staff Editors; 4 Page(s)

You'd better save like crazy if you want to fund a 30-year retirement

The Battle Against Aging/Living Longer: What Really Works?; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Robin Marantz Henig; 8 Page(s)

The elixirs du jour - antioxidants, gene therapy and aerobic conditioning - have yet to prove that they do much better than the potions and patent medicines of yesteryear

The Battle Against Aging/Radical Proposal; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Kathryn Brown; 6 Page(s)

There may be a way to prevent ourselves from rusting from the inside

The Battle Against Aging/The Famine of Youth; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Gary Taubes; 6 Page(s)

Severely restricting diet may increase life span, but few will be able to follow such a harsh regimen

The Battle Against Aging/Counting the Lives of a Cell; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Evelyn Strauss; 6 Page(s)

Studies of clocklike elements in the nucleus of cells could lead to a range of therapies that might bolster the immune system, reverse heart disease, even combat cancer

The Battle Against Aging/Mother Nature's Menders; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Mike May; 6 Page(s)

Stem cells might routinely repair our worn-out tissue, if society accepts this approach

The Battle Against Aging/Spare Parts for Vital Organs; The Quest to Beat Aging; by David Pescovitz; 6 Page(s)

Engineers are creating artificial replacements for failing hearts, kidneys, pancreases and livers

The Battle Against Aging/Of Hyperaging and Methuselah Genes; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Evelyn Strauss; 4 Page(s)

Children with diseases of the elderly and studies of genes that extend life span in animals are opening a window on how we age

Thwarting Major Killers/Preventing Good Brains from Going Bad; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Mia Schmiedeskamp; 8 Page(s)

The fight against two life-robbing diseases, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, has just begun

Thwarting Major Killers/Stopping Cancer Before it Starts; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Ken Howard; 5 Page(s)

Early intervention may prevent cancer from becoming inevitable with age

Thwarting Major Killers/Saving Hearts That Grow Old; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Delia K. Cabe; 5 Page(s)

Better understanding of atherosclerosis - the inflammation and buildup of fatty deposits in blood vessels - has triggered new approaches to treating the nation's leading cause of death

Meditations on Quality of Life/Promised Land or Purgatory; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Catherine Johnson; 6 Page(s)

Whether old age is worth living depends largely on mental health

Meditations on Quality of Life/Cults of the Undying; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Compiled by Eugene Raikhel; 6 Page(s)

The prospect of living forever, or at least a millennium, has served as a theme for storytellers throughout history

Meditations on Quality of Life/It Smells of Immortality; The Quest to Beat Aging; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Socially speaking, long life might stink