Optimism knows no bounds in this fantastic extrapolation from current research on aging. Fossell (Clinical medicine/Michigan State Univ.) foresees a wonderful future in which not only will human aging be reversed but cancer will be vanquished and heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer's prevented. The key, it seems, is learning how to manipulate the clock of aging, which has now been identified as the telemere, the end segment of DNA on chromosomes. Fossell reports that in the laboratory researchers have been able to reset the telemeric clock in cells. Next, he says, will come development of safe and effective means of doing so in human beings. He cheerfully predicts that within the next ten years telemerase inhibitors, which prevent cells from dividing, will provide a cure for cancer, and by the year 2015 telemerase inducers, which keep cells from aging and thus prevent degenerative diseases, will be available. Fossell devotes most of his text to explaining the basic mechanisms of aging on the cellular level, and he does this adroitly, using black-and-white drawings, simple analogies, and plain English. The consequences of a greatly enhanced life span (the actual number of years remains uncertain) are far less thoroughly considered. The author's predictions of how society might be transformed are diverting but simplistic, touching lightly on, among other things, population growth, the economy, retirement, education, the environment, marriage and the family, and crime and punishment. While acknowledging that there will be some problems, or ``growing pains,'' as he calls them, his view is decidedly rosy, almost Panglossian. Valuable for its lucid explanations of current knowledge about aging, and entertaining in its speculations about the future. (Author tour)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-14324-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1996
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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