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Science Friday > Archives > 2001 > August > August 31, 2001:
Hour One: Aging and Longevity / Strange Benchtop Discovery

Why is it that some people can smoke, drink, eat all the wrong things and live to be a hundred? One group of researchers thinks the answer might lie in our genes. Earlier this week they announced their discovery, that a group of centenarians and their siblings all had a similar group of genes in one region of chromosome 4. Could those genes be the answer to long life? We'll talk about it in this hour of Science Friday. Plus, a strange new benchtop discovery.....

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Guests:
Michael Fossel
Author, "Reversing Human Aging"
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI

Steven Austad
Author, "Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey Through Life" (Wiley)
Associate Professor, Zoology
Gerontologist
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho

Thomas Perls
Author, "Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age" (Basic Books)
Geriatrician, Gerontology Division and Biometrics Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Associate Professor, Division on Aging
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts

Michael McKubre
Director, Energy Research Center
SRI Incorporated
Menlo Park, California

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Reversing Human Aging," by Michael Fossel. William Morrow & Co, 1996. "Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey Through Life, by Steven Austad. John Wiley, 1999. "Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age" by Thomas Perls. Basic Books, 2000. (find more SciFri books here)

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Related Links:
Centegenetixs, Inc

The National Institute on Aging
The Administration on Aging
The Aging Research Centre
GeroWeb

This segment produced by: Annette Heist