Every so often, Nature puts out a free collection of representative papers in a field. This time round, it's aging research over the past couple of years:
The world's population is ageing rapidly. The effects of this change in demographics are predicted to touch on many facets of human life. Not least, because the health of older people deteriorates with time. This Nature collection draws together recent articles on the process of ageing, and the connections that exist between growing older and disease.
Cannily sponsored by Sirtris, you'll note - raising a nine-figure stack of venture capital for the main order of business allows many associated perks along the way. Also worth noting: "free" means you can request a free print copy in addition to reading the papers online.
The biochemistry of calorie restriction, stem cells and cancer as it relates to aging forms the order of the day - a good first-order approximation of the weight of research in mainstream gerontology at present. Go and take a look. The focus is on the mechanical underpinnings of metabolism, and how those mechanisms could be changed to allow for greater longevity - very much the slow road forward, given the immense complexity of our metabolic processes.
Technorati tags: aging, gerontology, science