Daedalus articles from January 2006

Daedalus archives from January 2006

The century ahead.
January 1, 2006... The twentieth century was, above all else, a century of population growth; the twenty-first century will be a century of aging. Between 1900 and 2000 the world's population quadrupled, from around 1.5 billion to over 6 billion. Most of this...

Longer life spans: boon or burden?
January 1, 2006... 'Aging angst' has become a booming industry among scholars. For example, the ethicist Leon Kass and others argue that, on a personal level, increasing longevity may deprive life of its savor and undermine the quest to achieve. Kass states, "If...

Mature societies: planning for our future selves.
January 1, 2006... As the new millennium begins, the world is entering into demographic maturity. Western Europe now has more people over age 60 than under age 15. Asia will follow by the year 2040, the Americas shortly after. But while Western Europe took more...

Facing our limits: human dignity in the very old.
January 1, 2006... An ancient Greek myth captures a dilemma that still faces us today. The goddess of the Dawn, Eos, persuades Zeus to make her earthly lover Tithonus immortal. But she forgets to ask Zeus to preserve the health and vitality of her lover. As a...

Of worms, mice & men: altering rates of aging.
January 1, 2006... The word 'aging' has very different implications for wine and women. Matters can improve or deteriorate over time, and the everyday usage of the term can cover either situation. In the natural world things tend to get worse over the course...

The life course of a skill-intensive foraging species.
January 1, 2006... The study of model organisms, such as flies and worms, is becoming an increasingly important tool in aging research. They are ideal for experiments that manipulate rates of aging because they are small, do not live long, reproduce rapidly, and...

The aging mind: deciphering Alzheimer's disease & its antecedents.
January 1, 2006... Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion... --Shakespeare, As You Like It Before the last century, only a small portion of the human population survived into the...

Aging, inflammation & the body electric.
January 1, 2006... In a famous photograph of Walt Whitman taken in the 1860s (see inside back cover), the great American bard looks wizened--his hair white, his face weathered. He looks, in short, like an old man. In fact, he was only in his forties. During...

The artist grows old.
January 1, 2006... "What is it to grow old?" asked Matthew Arnold, and gave a depressing answer: ... 'Tis not to have our life Mellowed and softened as with sunset-glow... 'Tis not to see the world As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes, And...

Measuring Social Security's financial outlook within an aging society.
January 1, 2006... The U.S. Social Security program provides an important 'first pillar' of retirement income. (1) Policymakers and the media, therefore, pay considerable attention to the financial viability of the program. Each year, the Social Security trustees...

How society shapes aging: the centrality of variability.
January 1, 2006... We have all known people who grow old suddenly or seem much older than their chronological age. Conversely, we see people who appear vibrant and seem resilient to the challenges they face late in life. What role does society play in shaping...

Last supper.(poem by Charles Wright)(Poem)
January 1, 2006... I seem to have come to the end of something, but don't know what, Full moon blood orange just over the top of the redbud tree. Maundy Thursday tomorrow, then Good Friday, then Easter in full drag, Dogwood blossoms like little crosses...

I kneel before you.(Short story)
January 1, 2006... Light streaming into the room wakes me. I curl around Jaichin's body and close my eyes. Jaichin pushes me away. "Get up," he says, his face buried in the pillow. "Get up, Xiao-li. It's your time." The morning is my responsibility. The...

Dialogue between Daniel Bell & Wolf Lepenies: on society & sociology past & present.(Interview)
January 1, 2006... "That's no way to start a newspaper article!"* How many times have I heard Daniel Bell say that? For several years he and I worked together with a Japanese colleague--the literary critic and author of No plays, Masakazu Yamazaki--to edit...

Jeri Laber on torture.
January 1, 2006... It has been well over a year since we first learned about the torture by American soldiers in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Yet only low-level offenders have been tried and punished. Americans have been forced to confront difficult questions: Why...

Robert F. Nagel on the decline of federalism.
January 1, 2006... In the last century, federalism dramatically declined in significance to the American public. One reason for this deterioration was the development of new individual rights, particularly as a result of the civil rights movement, when state...

On compromised work.(Letters to the Editor of Daedalus)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... November 22, 2005 To the Editor: I write in response to the article "Compromised work" by Howard Gardner in the Summer 2005 issue of Daedalus. I read some months ago the much longer research paper that Gardner summarizes by Paula...

Poetry for nonpoets.(Letters to the Editor of Daedalus)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... August 29, 2005 To the Editor: May I explain my submission? The poem that appears in each issue of Daedalus is often written by a recognized composer, sometimes with several books of poems to his or her name. There is a class of...

Jingle.(Poem)
January 1, 2006... Alarming The one-l lama, He's a priest. The two-l llama, He's a beast. And I will bet A silk pajama There isn't any Three-l lllama. --Ogden Nash Ogden Nash once said to me My poem is lovely as a tree. I said to...