Overview:

In the past decade, research on the fundamental biology of aging has moved from the scientific backwaters to the mainstream. Recent advances in molecular genetics and biology have made even that illusive dream of clinical interventions to retard the onset of age-related diseases plausible. For us and humanity as a whole, the consequences of achieving this would dwarf most other impacts of today’s revolution in biotechnology. What, after all, could more alter the topology of human life than extending human vitality and postponing sickness and death?

But in our lifetimes, how realistic is the possibility of retarding human aging? What new technologies and research developments could best spur progress. What critical milestones will have to be passed along the way?