Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome

by Caleb E. Finch

Featuring extensive references, updated for this paperback edition, Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome constitutes a landmark contribution to biomedicine and the evolutionary biology of aging.

To enhance gerontology's focus on human age-related dysfunctions, Caleb E. Finch provides a comparative review of all the phyla of organisms, broadening gerontology to intersect with behavioral, developmental, evolutionary, and molecular biology. By comparing species that have different developmental and life spans, Finch proposes an original typology of senescence from rapid to gradual to negligible, and he provides the first multiphyletic calculations of mortality rate constants.

938 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 1991

Reviews

[Anca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn in the number of stars for rating this book. On the one hand, the subject takes a lot to research and this is THE book on comparative gerontology. I became interested in the subject a long time ago and since last year I'm working on a second book given the many discoveries of comparative aging that took place since the 90s. Still, the present book was difficult to read with long sentences and dry words. If it weren't for my passionate interest in the topic, I doubt I would have taken the time to follow around 600 pages of dry, academic text.