Abstract
Aging is both a complex and challenging scientific problem and a fact of universal concern. Raymond Pearl began his classic The Biology of Death by asserting that “probably no subject so deeply interests human beings as that of the duration of human life.” This concern is extremely ancient. Despite the belief of some that the “cult of youth” is a modern invention, even a product of American advertising, no one need look very far to be reminded otherwise. It was in the sixteenth century that the Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain of Youth. In fact, preliterate peoples attributed to their gods, whether in Valhalla or on Mt. Olympus, magical ways of postponing old age forever.
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© 1978 Plenum Press, New York
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Moment, G.B. (1978). The Ponce de Leon Trail Today. In: Behnke, J.A., Finch, C.E., Moment, G.B. (eds) The Biology of Aging. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3994-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3994-6_1
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