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Lifespan : les personnages

W A Sinclair

A 4,000-year hunt for immortality, from Gilgamesh's failure to Google's labs.

Ceux qui portent l'histoire

Personnages principaux

Gilgamesh

The Sumerian king whose quest for immortality ends in failure, the pattern Sinclair says repeats throughout history.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 1: The King Who Lost Forever
Thèmes :
The Failure Pattern

Luigi Cornaro

Venetian nobleman who credited a strict diet of about 12 ounces of food per day for his survival to age 102, and wrote a famous treatise on longevity.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 1: The King Who Lost Forever

Elie Metchnikoff

Nobel Prize-winning biologist who blamed gut 'putrefaction' for aging, promoted yogurt bacteria as a cure, and coined the term 'gerontology.'

Apparaît dans :
Partie 2: Doctors Who Gambled on Their Own Bodies
Thèmes :
Science as Salvation

Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard

French endocrinology pioneer who injected himself with animal testicle extracts in 1889, claimed rejuvenation, and saw the effects dismissed as placebo.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 2: Doctors Who Gambled on Their Own Bodies
Thèmes :
The Failure Pattern
The Gray Market of Hope

Aussi dans l'histoire

Personnages secondaires

Alexis Carrel

The scientist who claimed in 1912 that chicken heart cells could divide indefinitely in culture, and believed human lifespan could be extended the same way.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 2: Doctors Who Gambled on Their Own Bodies
Thèmes :
The Failure Pattern

Saul Kent and Bill Faloon

Life Extension organization founders jailed in 1991 on $850,000 bond each, who fought the FDA for eleven years until all criminal indictments were dismissed.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 3: The Movement Gets Organized, and Gets Sued
Thèmes :
The Gray Market of Hope

Aubrey de Grey

The movement's most visible scientist, who co-founded the Methuselah Foundation in 2003 and the SENS Research Foundation in 2009.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 3: The Movement Gets Organized, and Gets Sued

Michael D. West

Stem cell scientist whose 2003 book The Immortal Cell argued embryonic stem cells could play a role in reversing aging.

Apparaît dans :
Partie 3: The Movement Gets Organized, and Gets Sued
Thèmes :
Science as Salvation

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Lifespan : thèmes & symboles

The Failure Pattern · Science as Salvation · The Gray Market of Hope · Who Gets to Live Forever?

Les thèmes expliqués

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L'histoire partie par partie, la fin expliquée et un quiz express.

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