AGELESS QUEST: One Scientist's Search for Genes that Prolong Youth

Science can be like sausage—sure, you like it, but you're better off not knowing how it's made. But with the arrival this year of a number of tell-all science memoirs, readers can't help but take a peek, deriving a certain lurid thrill. Given the potentially explosive subject matter, one would expect Guarente's account of his pursuit of a genetic "cure" for aging to dish up controversy, but it doesn't. Rather, this slim book delivers pure work-a-day science, without any insider dramatics. Guarente, a biologist at MIT whose work on aging has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Boston Globe, does gripe now and again about such things as the hardships of the tenure track. But the balance of the book details the author's intellectual adventure, touching along the way on theories of aging and the workings of the biotech industry. At the heart of his story is a gene called SIR2, which has been found to slow aging in yeast in animals. Could it eventually be used on humans? Possibly. Guarente views aging as a disease that someday might be treatable with new drugs, which raises further provocative questions about the ripple effect treatment could have on population, economics and other social factors. But the author, who excels as a diarist but less as a popular-science pitchman, leaves these questions largely untapped. This, admittedly, makes for sedate though quite amiable, utilitarian reading. (Jan.)