Chris Patil on Aging Research and the Media

Researcher Chris Patil comments on aging research and the media over at Ageing Research, which you can contrast to Aubrey de Grey's position on the same issue: "For academic biogerontologists, there are two related aims of aging research. The explicit, near-term goal is improving our understanding of the aging process at multiple levels - at the cellular and molecular levels ... The (occasionally) implicit, longer-term goal is to use this understanding to create interventions that will improve the health and happiness of human beings - and here the ambitions range from the treatment of single aging-related diseases to therapies that will delay or even reverse the aging process itself. ... I think [media representations are] largely positive. Even when individual articles get their 'zing' from focusing on what I consider to be quite long-term goals, I think they still do a tremendous amount of good by raising consciousness about the biology of aging. We're entering a period of history when people will become more and more willing to appreciate the benefit of long-term thinking, especially as related to technology - we're already seeing that with the environment, and I think aging research and anti-aging medicine will be another example."

Link: http://ageing-research.blogspot.com/2008/06/chris-patil-ageing-research-and-media.html

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