Summary
April 16, 2024 | 7-8:30 PM ET
Join Nobel Prize-winning author Venki Ramakrishnan as he unveils the strides science has made in understanding aging and longevity—and Ramakrishnan’s new book, Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality. Unraveling the universal human fear of death, Ramakrishnan traces our historical attempts to evade its inevitability—from religious afterlife beliefs to the existential realization in childhood that all we cherish is short-lived. He guides readers through the cutting-edge research shaping our understanding of mortality and raises the tantalizing possibility of extending our lifespan exponentially. As he navigates the recent breakthroughs in altering physiology to extend life, he contemplates life, and the biological purpose of death, and probes the social and ethical implications of pursuing immortality.
About the Author
Venki Ramakrishnan, PhD, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Venki runs the Ramakrishnan Lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. From 2015 to 2020, he served as president of the Royal Society, one of the world’s oldest scientific organizations. He is the author of the frank scientific memoir Gene Machine.
Registration
The event is open for on demand registration