Is cellular aging a myth? Delving into Harold Katcher’s new book, The Illusion of Knowledge: The paradigm shift in aging research that shows the way to human rejuvenation.
4th September sees the launch of Harold Katcher’s book, The Illusion of Knowledge: The paradigm shift in aging research that shows the way to human rejuvenation. Katcher is the scientist behind the spectacular mammalian rejuvenation that caused a Twitter storm last year and which we covered here. Katcher’s results – 54% of epigenetic rejuvenation – were measured by Steve Horvath, and, as David Sinclair puts it: “If this finding holds up, rejuvenation of the body may become commonplace within our lifetimes, able to systemically reduce the risk of the onset of several diseases in the first place or provide resilience to a wide variety of infections.”
Longevity.Technology: Harold Katcher’s book aims to explain in detail the foundations of his theory of aging and the evolutionary and biochemical bases of the mechanisms that determine the lifespan of different species. But more than that, Katcher seeks to provide an in-depth analysis humanity’s relationship with the idea of immortality and the concept of aging. By looking through the related history of scientific ideas, he posits that it is no accident that he may have made one of the greatest discoveries in human history.
We’ll be bringing you an interview with Dr Katcher in the coming weeks, but ahead of that, here are a few tasters from The Illusion of Knowledge.
Circular reasoning in some theories of aging:
Cellular aging as a cell non-autonomous process:
“I realized that everything I had been taught (and had myself taught) about aging was false. It quickly became clear to me that cellular aging was a myth. While I worked for many weeks drawing circuit diagrams of redox pathways (I’m more familiar with electrical circuitry, and we are after all dealing with the flow of electrons and their use in producing the energy the cell needs), there was no obvious way that cells could not restore their components given enough energy (in the form of food). Now the reason became clear:
