From Rowan Mitchell, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
Venki Ramakrishnan’s take on the most promising ways to stop ageing gave a realistic appraisal of the state of the science. But I was particularly struck by his discussion about the need to accept mortality and how hard it is to do this gracefully (23 March, p 36).
Any intervention that increases longevity substantially is likely to require altering our fundamental biology. But I feel a much better aim, for both the sum of human happiness and the planet, would be to make people lose their fear of death as they age, so they enjoy every day until their last.
