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Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity

by Nicklas Brendborg

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Longevity across the living world

$18.95 USD
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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize

    Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize.

  • Editorial selection

    A New York Times Editor's Choice Pick

    Selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice Pick.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Longevity across the living world

Nicklas Brendborg, a molecular biologist, places the human quest for longer life alongside the varied lifespans and biological capacities of other species. The book ranges from long-lived trees and Greenland sharks to a jellyfish described as able to reverse its aging process, bringing together examples from habitats around the world with research on aging. Human stories—including fasting and personal DNA editing—extend the inquiry beyond animal and plant life. The result is a broad exploration of longevity, framed by the question of what these natural examples might teach us about aging in our own species.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in biology, ecology, and aging research.
  • Readers curious about longevity across plants, animals, and humans.
  • Readers who enjoy popular science organized around examples from the natural world.

Themes

Aging and longevityBiological diversityNature and human healthScientific research

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

This eye-opening book offers a "clear and captivating" (Dr. Kris Verburgh​)scientific deep dive into how plants and animals have already unlocked the secrets to immortality-and the lessons they hold for us all.

Recent advances in medicine and technology have expanded our understanding of aging across the animal kingdom, and our own timeless quest for the fountain of youth. Yet, despite modern humans living longer today than ever before, the public's understanding of what is possible is limited to our species--until now. In this spunky, effervescent debut, the key to immortality is revealed to be a superpower within reach. With mind-bending stories from the natural world and our own, Jellyfish Age Backwards reveals lifespans we cannot imagine and physiological gifts that feel closer to magic than reality:

  • There is a Greenland shark that was 286 years old when the Titanic sank, and is currently 390, making it older than the United States. Scientists predict it will live for another 100 years.
  • Trees and lobsters don't "age" in the way we know it. They simply get bigger and bigger.
  • There are forms of radiation that have been known to actually increase the lifespans of certain species, from tortoises to naked mole-rats.
  • There's a species of jellyfish, the size of a fingernail, that can age forwards, then, when threatened, age backwards and begin the process all over again.
Mixing cutting-edge research and stories from habitats all around the world, molecular biologist Nicklas Brendborg explores extended life cycles in all its varieties. Along the way, we meet a man who fasted for over a year; a woman who edited her own DNA; redwoods that survive thousands of years; and in the soil of Easter Island, the key to eternal youth. Jellyfish Age Backwards is a love letter to the immense power of nature, and what the immortal lives of many of earth's animals and plants can teach us about the secrets to longevity.

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize

A New York Times Editor's Choice Pick

A Sunday Times (UK) Best Book of the Year
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