the.com/gerontology
the science that treats aging as a puzzle to solve, not a defeat to accept.
means The scientific study of aging and the biological, psychological, and social changes that come with growing old.
from From Greek gerōn, gerontos meaning 'old man' — the same root that gives us 'gerontocracy,' rule by elders — joined to -logia, 'the study of.' The term is a relatively modern coinage, assembled in the early 20th century as medicine began treating aging itself as a subject worthy of its own discipline, distinct from geriatrics, which is the clinical care of the old rather than the study of oldness.
- word roots
- From Greek geron, meaning old man
- young field
- Coined in 1903 by Elie Metchnikoff
- not geriatrics
- Studies aging, not just treating elderly patients
- blue zones
- Maps regions where people routinely top 100
- jellyfish envy
- Some species reverse aging entirely, mocking us
senescence at cellular level — hayflick limit discovered 1961: human cells divide ~50 times before dying
blue zones longevity study — okinawa japan, sardinia italy, costa rica: populations with highest concentration of centenarians