population: rise in elderly, 1, 2, 3, 4
positive attitudes to ageing,
influence of, 1, 2
poverty, 1, 2
Pratchett, Terry, 1
pre-industrial societies, attitudes towards the elderly, 1, 2
premature ageing, see progeria
presbyopia, 1
Pritchett, V. S., 1
Prodi, Romani, 1
progeria, 1, 2
prostate, 1
proteins, 1
psychoanalysis, 1
psychiatry, 1
Quetelet, Adolphe, 1
rapamycin, 1
Reagan, Ronald, 1
Reardon, Ray, 1
religion, 1, 2, 3
Rembrandt, 1
reproduction, 1
resveratrol, 1
retirement, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
retirement age, 1, 2, 3, 4
Robinson, Anne, 1
Robinson, Gerry, 1
Rosenberg, Leo, 1
rural living, 1
St Augustine, 1, 2
Saint Germain, Comte de, 1
Scientific American, 1
self-image of the elderly, 1, 2, 3, 4
Seneca, 1
sex in old age, 1, 2, 3
Shakespeare, William, 1, 2, 3, 4
Shaw, George Bernard, 1
Sheldon, Joseph, 1
Shock, Nathan Wetherwell, 1
Simmons, Leo: Role of the Aged in Primitive Society, 1
Simpson, John, 1
sirtuin genes, 1, 2, 3
skin colouring and wrinkling, 1;
see also cosmetics
Skinner. B. F., and M. E. Vaughan: Enjoy Old Age, 1
sleep problems, 1
smoking, 1
snooker, 1
Sommers, Alice, 1
Sophocles, 1, 2, 3
Spark, Murieclass="underline" Memento Mori, 1
Spencer, June, 1
Sphinx, riddle of the, 1
sport, 1
stem cells, 1
stereotypes of the old, 1, 2, 3;
see also ageism
Stradivarius, 1
stress, 1
strokes, 1, 2
Suchet, John, 1
suicide, 1, 2, 3
Sunday Times, 1
supercentenarians, 1
Suzman, Richard, 1
Swift, Jonathan, 1, 2, 3;
Gulliver’s Travels, 1
Tandy, Jessica, 1
telomeres, 1
teeth problems, 1
The Oldie, 1
Thomas, Dylan, 1
Titian, 1
Tithonus (Greek myth), 1, 2, 3
tinnitus, 1
Tolstoy, Leo, 1
Trollope, Anthony: The Fixed Period, 1
Trotsky, Leon, 1, 2
TV and radio, 1, 2
Twain, Mark, 1
twins, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
University of the Third Age, 1
Updike, John, 1;
My Father’s Tears, 1
vascular dementia, 1
Verdi, Giuseppe, 1
Virgil, 1
von Schulenberg, Levin, 1
Vonnegut, Kurt, 1
Voronoff, Serge, 1
Wall Street Journal, 1
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1
Warnock, Mary, 1
Warren, Marjory, 1
Watson, Tom, 1
wealth and education, influence on ageing, 1, 2, 3
Weismann, August, 1, 2, 3
Werner syndrome, 1
Which? magazine, 1, 2, 3
Wilde, Oscar, 1, 2;
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1
Wildenstein, Jocelyn, 1
will, preparing a, 1
Willetts, David, 1
Williams, Samuel, 1
Whitlock, Ed, 1
Wright, Tom, 1
Xiaoping, Deng, 1
yeast, 1
Yeats, W. B., 1, 2
Zedong, Mao, 1
By the Same Author
THE UNNATURAL NATURE OF SCIENCE
MALIGNANT SADNESS: The Anatomy of Depression
SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief
HOW WE LIVE AND WHY WE DIE: The Secret Lives of Cells
About the Author
Lewis Wolpert is a distinguished developmental biologist, and is Emeritus Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at University College, London. He is the author of, among others, The Unnatural Nature of Science and Malignant Sadness, which was described by Anthony Storr as ‘the most objective short account of all the various approaches to depression’. His most recent book, How We Live and Why We Die, was published in 2009.
Copyright
First published in 2011
by Faber and Faber Ltd
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London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2012
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© Lewis Wolpert, 2011
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This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–25066–0