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If you are taken aback by the notion that there is a singular cause of aging, you are not alone. If you haven’t given any thought at all as to why we age, that’s perfectly normal, too. A lot of biologists haven’t given it much thought, either. Even gerontologists, doctors who specialize in aging, often don’t ask why we age—they simply seek to treat the consequences.

This isn’t a myopia specific to aging. As recently as the late 1960s, for example, the fight against cancer was a fight against its symptoms. There was no unified explanation for why cancer happens, so doctors removed tumors as best they could and spent a lot of time telling patients to get their affairs in order. Cancer was “just the way it goes,” because that’s what we say when we can’t explain something

THE DEMENTED PIANIST

Our DNA is constantly under attack. On average, each ofour forty-six chromosomes is broken in some way every time a cell copies its DNA, amounting to more than 2 trillion breaks in our bodies per day. And that’s just the breaks that occur during replication. Others are caused by natural radiation, chemicals in our environment, and the X-rays and CT scans that we’re subjected to.

THE BLIND EPIDEMIC

If the idea that aging is a disease sounds strange to you, you’re not alone. Physicians and researchers have been avoiding saying that for a long time. Aging, we’ve long been told, is simply the process of growing old. And growing old has long been seen as an inevitable part of life

Together we can build a single dam—at the source. Not just intervene when things go wrong. Not just slow things down. We can eliminate the symptoms of aging altogether. This disease is treatable.

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

Today, deaths among people suffering from tuberculosis and gastrointestinal conditions are exceedingly rare. And pneumonia and influenza claim less than 10 percent of the lives taken by those conditions a little more than a century ago—with most of those deaths now among individuals weakened by aging.

No matter how old you are, even if you are a teenager, it is already happening to you.65 DNA damage has accelerated your clock, with implications at all stages of life. Embryos and babies experience aging. What, then, of people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s? What of those individuals who are already frail and cannot restrict their calories, go for a run, or make snow angels in the dead ofwinter? Is it too late for them? Not at all.

A BETTER PILL TO SWALLOW

THE DREAM OF EXTENDING HUMAN lives did not begin in the early twenty-first century any more than the dream of human flight began in the early twentieth. Nothing begins with science; it all begins with stories.

From Gilgamesh the Sumerian king, who is said to have reigned over Uruk for 126 years, to Methuselah the patriarch in Hebrew scriptures, who is said to have lived to the age of 969, humanity’s sacred stories testify to our deep-seated fascination with longevity. Outside myths and parables, though, we had little scientific evidence of anyone succeeding in extending their life far beyond the single century mark. We had little hope of doing so without a deep understanding of how life works. That is knowledge, albeit still imperfect, that some of my colleagues and I believe we finally possess.

BIG STEPS AHEAD

Technologies become commonplace and parents ponder how to get the biggest bang for the buck, how long will it be before another rogue scientist teams up with the world’s most driven helicopter parent to create a genetically modified family with the capacity to resist the effects ofaging? It may not be long at all.

THE AGE OF INNOVATION

Each new discovery creates new potential. Each minute saved in the quest for faster and more accurate gene sequencing can help save lives. Even if it doesn’t move the needle much on the maximum number of years we live, this age of innovation will ensure that we stay much healthier much longer.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

DNA monitoring will soon be alerting doctors to diseases long before they become acute. We will identify and begin to fight cancer years earlier. If you have an infection, it will be diagnosed within minutes. If your heartbeat is irregular, your car seat will let you know. A breath analyzer will detect an immune disease beginning to develop. Keystrokes on the keyboard will signal early Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis. Doctors will have far more information about their patients—and they will have access to it long before patients arrive at a clinic or hospital. Medical errors and misdiagnoses will be slashed. The result of any one of these innovations could be decades of prolonged healthy life.

A PATH FORWARD

That, more than anything else, is how our understanding of aging and inevitable prolonged vitality is going to change the world. It will compel us to confront challenges that we currently push down the road. To invest in research that won’t just benefit us now, but people 100 years from now. To worry about the planet’s ecosystems and climate 200 years from now.