Beyond Human

How Cutting-Edge Science is Extending our Lives

Eve Herold 2016 St. Martin's Beaverton 174.2 HER

• p10 Obesity gene therapy Dr. Ron Kahn Joslin Diabetes Center Boston, "fat insulin receptor gene", blocked reception in mice, eat ad libitum, don't get fat, live 18% longer than controls.

• p55 ESRD End Stage Renal Disease

• p65 UCSF Kidney Project Shuvo Roy

• p67 artificial chemistry, hemofilter for sugar and salt and (blood clots>)

• p100 TATRC Karl Friedl (no references, sigh)
  • p103 every good idea needs a "zealot" ... "The magic number seems to be ten - ten years while everyone shoots in down, and then something happens, the idea takes off,and then suddenly everybody is all over it. Without a zealot to weather all the criticism, the idea will be killed."

Not a useful book. The author is a "Science Writer" (== journalist), a collector of factoids and quotes without scientific/functional understanding. A lot of he says / she says, with lists of hyperbolistic benefits and hyperbolistic pessimism.

For example, chapter on brain enhancement seems ignorant of brain physiology.

• p127 "promotes neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells and the sprouting of new connections"

  • not true, see http://www.pnas.org/content/103/33/12564.full.pdf

There might be a few useful pointers to real science in this book, but I don't have time to sift through it.