17 thoughts on “My Ageing Book Released in UK and Asia-Pacific

  1. I purchased the Kindle version from Amazon.com, but the hardcover version there says there are only 3 left in stock. So head’s up, since if I see that illustrations and charts are key, I will purchase one of the hard covers if I need to enlarge them to see.

  2. Sorry Josh, about your book, I reside in Spain and I could not by it, Amazon UK will not sell it to me, only to UK residents.
    take care
    Jaime

  3. Glad to see the Gospel of Programmed Aging spreading to the benighted heathen hobbits in New Middle-Earth (though I am somewhat concerned that they can’t order books in English from Amazon.com…. why does there have to be a separate release for New Zealand?). I hate to see books with multiple titles, but maybe this will serve as “A-B testing” (and it may be a better title).

    • MacMillan owns the rights in North America, and several foreign publishers have bought translation rights, but no one came forward to publish the book in UK or Australia. I have formatted the book for Kindle on my own. I never liked the title “Cracking the Aging Code”, but experts tell me that “What Good is Death” will turn readers away. I guess we’ll find out…

      • I like the newer titel much better Josh. “cracking the aging code” Kinda had a self-helpish tone, atleast in my ears. “What good is death” is a much nicer titel.

        I just finished reading sapiens, i can only recommend it. i’ve just bought your book, i will start reading for my wife as good night reading.

      • Hi Josh, I like the new title “What Good is Death: It has suitably sceptical tone.

        By the way one Australian publishers who published an excellent range of books is Scribe Publications in Melbourne.

        Perhaps they may offer to publish it if you contacted them.

        However I have the hardback copy of your 2016 edition already.

  4. Anyone read this paper yet?

    ‘Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age.’

    For some reason Calico scientists caring for cages full of Naked Mole Rats makes me very happy! From my reading of this paper, it appears Naked Mole Rats don’t have an age increasing component to their mortality – only a constant term based on their environment. This would truly make them an non-aging species! What is most interesting to me, and relevant to the paper I posted a while back (‘Naked Mole Rat Cells Have a Stable Epigenome that Resists iPSC Reprogramming’ ), is that these creatures can live so much longer than they do in the wild. This implies that any random, harmful mutations in their genome that don’t kick in until after they would normally have died in the wild, are kept under control somehow (i.e. by a very stable epigenome, perhaps).

    What really blows me away is that if this paper can be believed, Naked Mole Rats don’t actually have a maximal lifespan, they just ‘tail off’ very gradually after reaching median lifespan; at no point does the damage become insurmountable and kill them all off within a short time ( as it does with any super old humans). Of course it might be that they do have a rising mortality term associated with aging, but if there is, it is too small to be detected within the timescale of the records used in this paper.

  5. I loved ‘What Good is Death’, and finished it in a day! It is a fantastic synthesis of history, (mainly of Evolutionary Biology) science and philosophy -all logically argued. I have long been a reader of popular Evolutionary Biology writers such as EO Wilson, but I was only vaguely aware of the different theories and their implications for understanding approaches to ageing. I also liked the more practical last chapters that reviewed current and potential future trends when thinking about healthy Life Extension. Josh I wonder if you have read some of my favourite books about themes you have covered.. Plague Species by Reg Morrison, Staring At the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Dying by Irving Yalom and The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee? I would encourage everyone interested in the subject of this blog to get hold of ‘What Good is Death’? – or its inferior title ‘Cracking the Ageing Code’.I have added it to books I am recommending to friends.

    • Thank you, Sue, both for the compliments and for the recommendations. I’m not familiar with any of these except that I’ve read reviews of Mukherjee. I’m going to put all these on my reading list, beginning with Staring at the Sun.

      Sue, would you be willing to post a review on the Amazon page?

      • I have now happily reviewed it and now sending recommendations to friends. Good luck with sales. It deserves to be a big success but not everyone enjoys the big picture.

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