Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

by David A. Sinclair

As I write this, I am wearing a regular-sized ring that is monitoring my heart rate, body temperature, and movements. It tells me each morning if I slept well, how much I dreamed, and how alert I will be during the day. Technology like this has been around for some time, I suppose, for people such as Bruce Wayne and James Bond. Now it costs a few hundred dollars and can be ordered by anyone online.23 Recently, my wife and eldest child came home with matching ear piercings, which got me thinking: there’s really no reason that an even smaller piece of body jewelry—particularly one that pierces the skin—couldn’t be used to track thousands of biomarkers. Every member of the family could be measured: grandparents, parents, and children. Even infants and four-legged family members will have monitors on them, because they are the ones who are least able to tell us what they are feeling.