Some Sunday Reading Material
A little reading from the blogosphere for you, as I was browsing this weekend. "Aging as exile?" is an interesting blog. It's a good reminder that we younger folk don't fully understand just how much damage - in many different ways - aging does to our lives. I think that this is one of the reasons that it's hard to convince people to look ahead to a time when their life will be much worse, and take action now. I am reminded of the value of ideas like the Aging Explorer Suit, a simulator that enables to you experience life with age-related limitations and conditions.
Ten minutes spent in the Age Explorer is enough to imbue instant sympathy with the elderly even in the most adamant ageist. "Younger people who try on the suit say, finally, I understand why older people act the way they do," said Hanne Meyer-Hentschel, the suit's creator.
Hopefully, with our greater powers of communication in this modern age, we can also convince younger people to help support medical research to prevent aging and age-related conditions.
On that note, science isn't all a bed of roses for even the most enthusiastic researchers - it's generally a lot harder than good scientists make it look. You won't hear about the ten failures in the science papers ... just the final success. It does become much less frustrating when you've graduated from the initial university rat race, however, and are somewhat more free to work towards your goals (rather than your academic credentials).