Why We Die is shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Science Book Prize, supported by the Trivedi Family Foundation
About the book
Would you want to live forever? Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan transforms our understanding of why we age and die - and whether there's anything we can do about it. We are living through a revolution in biology. Giant strides are being made in our understanding of why we age and die, and why some species live longer than others. Immortality, once a faint hope, has never been more within our grasp. Examining recent scientific breakthroughs, Ramakrishnan shows how cutting-edge efforts to extend lifespan by altering our natural biology raise profound questions. Although we might not like it, does death serve a necessary biological purpose? And how can we increase our chances of living long, healthy and fulfilled lives? As science advances, we have much to gain. But might we also have much to lose?
About the author
Venki Ramakrishnan received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. He runs the Ramakrishnan Lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. From 2015 to 2020, he served as president of the Royal Society in London. He was knighted in 2012 and is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina and EMBO, and a Foreign Member of the Indian National Science Academy. Among his many other awards and honours are the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine and the Padma Vibhushan (the second highest civilian honour bestowed in India). He is the author of the scientific memoir Gene Machine, praised by Bill Bryson, Ian McEwan, Siddhartha Mukherjee and many others.
