What strategies actually work to fight dying?

Why We Die By Venki Ramakrishnan (William Morrow; 320 pages; $32.50. Hodder Press; £25)

FOR most of human history, death has been a blunt fact of life. People died because they were eaten, had an accident or developed an infection. In 1950 global life expectancy was 46.5 years. But now that the world is richer and healthier, it is almost 72. Living longer exposes more people to the wear and tear of ageing. Unlike their ancestors, they spend little time dodging predators and worry instead about succumbing to dementia or simply to frailty.

In “Why We Die”, Dr Venki Ramakrishnan asks whether it is possible to arrest the decay of body and mind. A molecular biologist based in Britain, Dr Ramakrishnan won a Nobel prize in 2009 for his work on how cells generate the proteins that make up human bodies. As those cells accumulate chemical damage, for instance from toxins, they malfunction, and their inherent repair mechanisms deteriorate.